


Wanderlust

by welcometotheupsidedown



Series: In Every Universe - Mileven Alternate Universes [5]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe- No Supernatural, Coming of Age, Eleven | Jane Hopper and Mike Wheeler in Love, F/M, Step-Siblings Will Byers & Eleven | Jane Hopper, Teen Angst, This is an original story that's been in my head for YEARS so I'm finally gonna write it, eventually, mileven centric, romcom material
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2020-02-04
Packaged: 2020-11-25 16:15:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20914931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/welcometotheupsidedown/pseuds/welcometotheupsidedown
Summary: Mike Wheeler is a popular senior in high school and the student body president, but when his English grade takes a turn, he has to get a tutor for extra help.El Hopper keeps to herself, and devotes all her time to her job and writing for the Hawkins High newspaper. She dreams of being a journalist, but her life gets interrupted by some disturbing news about her family.What happens when these two very different people's lives cross paths? Tutoring sessions and a roadtrip lead to unchartered territory for either of them. A coming of age story of learning to trust, accept, and most importantly, love.COMPLETE





	1. Tutoring Sessions and Spilled Spaghetti

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! So this is a story that I have been writing entirely in my head for YEARS and I really can't tell you why it's taken me so long to write it down, BUT I am now so.. yay?
> 
> Something you should note: This story wasn't actually written with Mike and El in mind. They were original characters, but I figured more people would read it if the main characters were people they cared about. SO, if they seem a little OOC in this story, that's why. However, I am doing my best to adapt the characters I had in mind to fit the personalities of Mike and El. 
> 
> Anyways, I'm super excited to share this with you guys and I hope you enjoy it!

If there was one thing Mike Wheeler hated more than anything, it was the social hierarchy of Hawkins High. Which, didn’t really make sense, considering he was at the top of it... well, almost. 

He hated it because he couldn’t talk to people he used to be friends with simply for the reason that they were in a lower slot on the high school totem pole. 

Sometimes he broke the rules, catching up with an old friend, but then his new friends would call for him, and he would leave his old friend once again. 

He hated himself for it. But outside of school, he didn’t really have anything. 

So he stayed with his stupid new friends. 

He was popular, no doubts there, but in a everyone-knows-you-because-you’re-on-the-student-council way, not in a you’re-good-at-sports or really-attractive way. 

As the president of student council, Mike had become well-liked by the student population for providing them with the best homecomings and proms the school had ever seen. Everyone credited him for fighting for their assigned parking spaces and for the less homework rule. 

But none of this made him a hero in Mr. Conners’ eyes. No, Mr. Conners was staring at him like he wanted Mike dead. 

Mike sat in a desk at the front of Mr. Conners’ room, as the middle-aged man stood in front of him. 

“Michael, I’m afraid I will have to fail you if this keeps going on,” Mr. Conners said. 

“I can do better, sir. I know I can,” Mike replied, leaning forward on the desk. 

“I know you can too, which is why I’m so upset. Two missing assignments in two days, I can’t just ignore that.”

“I know, I’m sorry... is there anything... anything I can do?” Mike pleaded. 

Mr. Conners hesitated for a moment, before finally speaking again, “I’m going to suggest you work with a tutor. If I were you, I’d start by asking the writers of the Hawkins High Newspaper. They’re all very good teachers.”

Mr. Conners then grabbed his briefcase and left Mike alone in the classroom. 

Mike let his head fall against the desk lightly, as he let out a sigh. 

........

The line at the cash register had finally let up as El Hopper was nearing the end of her shift. 

El was a rule follower. She made sure she was always on time and did her homework. Her life had turned into a cycle of trying to be perfect. 

Everyday she woke up, went to school, went to work, went home and did her homework, then went to sleep. She refused to complain, though, because in every other aspect, El had a great life. 

She lived with her father and stepmother, and her stepbrother, who all treated her very well. 

El Hopper had a good life. But she was bored. 

SO bored. 

And that night, the same night that Mr. Conners told Mike Wheeler he needed a tutor, El went home after work, did her homework, and went to sleep, not knowing that her life was about to change.

........

The next day, El was having a perfectly normal day, when suddenly there was a boy with a mop of black hair sitting in front of her as she attempted to write her story for the weekly newspaper. 

“Can I help you?” El asked, barely looking at him. She had plenty to do today. 

“You’re El, right? You wrote that story last week on climate change and how the school should try to go green?” the boy said. 

El finally decided to look at him, but immediately regretted the decision as her heart beat a little faster to see one of the popular (and attractive) boys sitting in front of her. 

El was not popular. So why would he talk to her?

“Uhm, yeah,” El finally answered. El had never gotten too caught up in love or relationships, but this boy was cute. No doubt about it. Her head had started spinning.

“Mr. Conners told me that if I didn’t get a tutor, I’d fail his class, and I really can’t fail his class. So, I was hoping... maybe you could tutor me?” the boy asked. 

El, finally remembering the boy’s name and who he was, replied, “I wouldn’t have thought that the student body president would need a tutor.”

Mike cringed a little, being called out wasn’t his favorite thing. “Uh, yeah... is that a no then?”

El considered him for a moment. She didn’t really want to tutor anyone. Plus, adding tutoring sessions to her already busy schedule didn’t sound all that appealing. 

But, her heart was still beating rapidly in her chest, and her brain quickly derailed from those negative thoughts. She wanted to be near him, even if it was just for tutoring. 

El’s mouth began talking before she’d really had the chance to think. 

“I’ll tutor you. When would you want to start?” she said, closing her laptop to focus on the conversation better. 

“Oh, um, maybe... tomorrow after school?” Mike suggested. 

“I can’t right after school. I work until eight at the mall,” El told him. 

“Well, I could meet you there, after you finish working?” Mike tried again. 

El nodded. “Meet you at the food court?”

“Yeah, okay... sounds good.” Mike stood, leaving El to her work. “See you tomorrow,” he said, as he stepped out of the room. 

He hadn’t waited for her answer, but El said it regardless. “Yeah... see you then.”

........

“It’s not a big deal. They’re just tutoring sessions,” El said. El’s best friend, Max was currently FaceTiming El and Will as they sat in El’s bedroom. 

“Oh sure, Ellie,” Max replied. 

Will rolled his eyes, he knew his sister well enough to know when she was crushing on someone. 

“What?” El questioned Will’s look. 

“It’s just... you said like a week ago that you weren’t going to add anything to your schedule,” Will answered. 

“Yeah, so I changed my mind,” El said. 

Max laughed, “El, the only reason you said yes to these tutoring sessions is because you’re attracted to him!”

“No, that is definitely not what this is,” El continued to deny the inevitable truth. 

“Friends don’t lie, El. But I think it’s even worse if you’re lying to yourself...” Max replied. There was a shuffling noise coming from Max’s end of the call and then she said, “My mom is calling me, I gotta go. See you guys in the morning!”

Max hung up, leaving Will and El alone. 

“You know she’s right. Your emotions are always out in the open, El. I know you like him,” Will looked at his sister, wanting to get through to her, hoping he could. 

“How can I like him? I don’t even know him. We’ve spoken once,” El told him. 

“The heart wants what it wants, El. And yours? It wants Mike Wheeler,” Will said, standing up and leaving El alone in her bedroom. 

El huffed indignantly, standing up to close the door, before lying back down on her bed.

........

Mike had hoped his mother wouldn’t notice him tonight. He’d waited until the last possible second to come home after hanging out with some friends. 

Sneaking through the basement door and making his way up the stairs, Mike tried to keep quiet. If he was lucky, his mom would already be in bed. 

Unfortunately, she was not. 

“Michael, I thought you were going to be home for dinner,” she said when she saw him. 

“Uh, I was but then Marcus invited me to eat at his place,” Mike answered, hoping she wouldn’t throw too much of a fit. 

“Mike, this is the fourth time this week. And it’s only Thursday. Spend some time with your family,” his mother nagged. 

“What family?” Mike said under his breath. The Wheelers weren’t exactly the happiest people. That was part of the reason he was avoiding family dinner. 

“What was that?” his mother questioned.

“Nothing,” he answered. His mother would kill him if he told her the true about why he constantly missed dinner. 

“Just, be here tomorrow, okay?” she persuaded.

“Um… actually I can’t tomorrow. I have a tutoring session,” Mike told her. He really didn’t want to tell her about tutoring, but if he was missing yet another dinner for it, he thought she should know.

“Tutoring?” Karen asked.

“My English teacher thinks I could use a little help keeping up,” he told her. “It’s really not a big deal.”

Mike’s mother looked like she wanted to say something else, but then she thought against it. “Okay,” she said. “But promise me you will be home for dinner on Saturday. No excuses.”

“I promise. I’ll be home,” Mike agreed.

“Alright then. Go to bed, it’s getting pretty late. Your sister has been asleep for a few hours already.”

Mike did as he was told, heading straight for his bedroom upstairs, and shutting the door behind him. 

……..

Friday had finally made it to Hawkins, Indiana, and the students in Hawkins High could not be more excited for another weekend. Among these students was El, as she practically skipped down the stairs of her house and sat at the table to eat her daily breakfast of Eggos and bacon. 

“You’re awfully cheerful today,” her father, Hopper noted.

El simply shrugged. “It’s Friday.”

Will swooped in then, grinning eagerly, and El knew he was up to no good. 

“Wanna know why she’s so happy?” he taunted, sitting next to her.

“I already said, it’s Friday,” El glared at Will. She knew he could make her life a living hell sometimes. 

“Nope, that’s not all,” Will replied, still grinning at her evilly.

“Will, I swear to god,” she whispered.

“She has a date tonight,” Will finally revealed. 

“You have a date? And you didn’t tell us?” Joyce asked as she sat at the table. Hopper looked uncomfortable at the thought of his daughter going on a date.

“It’s not a date,” El clarified.

“But she wants it to be,” Will teased. 

“Oh my god, would you shut up!” El yelled. 

“If it’s not a date, then what is it?” Joyce asked. 

“I’m tutoring some guy in English. He needs help with writing,” El explained.

“Well, I’m sure you’ll do a great job of helping him, honey,” Joyce said.

“Yeah, if she doesn’t end up drooling over him,” Will added. 

“Ugh Will! Stop it! Okay?” El pleaded. 

“Who is it anyway?” Hopper asked. 

“Mike Wheeler. He’s the student body president,” El told them.

“Bet she wants him to be the president of her body,” Will remarked. 

El nearly screeched at him, then, but held herself back by putting her face in her hands. Joyce gave him a stern look, “Will.”

“Okay, fine, I’ll stop,” he surrendered. 

“You little shit,” El whispered so that he was the only one who could hear. 

……..

El tried to forget about her stepbrother’s antics at breakfast and moved on with her day. 

Unfortunately for her, life was going to throw her for a loop today. 

First, she was late to first period because her locker had jammed. Then, she had a pop quiz in her second period history class that she had not been prepared for. In her last class before lunch, Troy Harrington had started harassing her for her number… again. 

El practically skipped to lunch after that. 

But of course, as her luck would have it, that wasn’t the end of her very unfortunate day.

She walked through the lunch line and grabbed a tray of their only semi-edible food, then turning to head to her usual table with Max and Will. 

And running right into Mike Wheeler.

Both of their lunch trays flew right out of their hands, but Mike had had enough sense to step back and avoid being covered in spaghetti sauce. El had not been so quick and ended up covered in it.

Her white shirt was stained in the red sauce.

“Oh my god, El! I’m so sorry!” Mike said, turning to gather some napkins from the table next to them, and trying to hand them to her.

“It’s okay. It’s my fault,” she told him, as she took the napkins. She looked down at her shirt, “I don’t think these are gonna do any good.”

El began to walk towards the girls bathroom, not really sure if anything in there would help. Mike followed her out of the cafeteria.

“Do you have any other clothes here?” he asked. 

“Just my work clothes,” El answered. 

“I might have something you could wear?” Mike offered.

El stopped walking to look at him. “You don’t have to do that… it’s really my fault. I should have been paying better attention.”

“I don’t care whose fault it is. And it’s really no big deal. I think I have a sweatshirt in my locker. You can give it back tonight, after the tutoring session,” Mike said. 

“You’re sure? Because I can just call my stepmom and she could bring me a new shirt,” El suggested. 

“I’m sure, come on,” he answered, walking towards his locker. 

When they got there, he pulled out a navy blue sweatshirt and handed it to her.

“Thank you, this is really sweet of you,” El said.

“No problem,” Mike replied, smiling at her. 

……..

Mike and El went back to lunch and El managed to survive the rest of her classes for the day. 

As she was packing up her books out of her locker for the weekend, a little note fell out onto the floor. 

She leaned down and picked it up, unfolding it to read it. 

Sorry about earlier. See you tonight, 8:00 ;) -Mike

El couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face as she put the little note into her bag and walked out of the school.


	2. Driver's License

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike and El meet up for their first tutoring session.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took me a little longer than expected. For once, I have the motivation, just not the time. 
> 
> Anyways, this one is mostly Mileven! Crushes are starting to form!!

El felt her heart nearly beating out of her chest as she worked for her four hour shift at the Gap. Four hours had never felt so long. El tried so hard to focus, but she just couldn’t stop thinking about the boy who she’d be seeing later that evening. 

She couldn’t deny it to herself anymore, she was definitely feeling something for Mike Wheeler. Her heart wouldn’t be acting like this if she didn’t. What she was feeling, though, she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. It was like the beginnings of a crush, but the feelings were already growing quickly with each moment she found her mind drifting off to him.

El was even more ecstatic when her boss let her off ten minutes early, giving her enough time to go and touch up the little bit of makeup she had on in the bathroom. 

She stood, staring at herself in the mirror, wondering if she was even pretty enough for Mike to be interested in her. Her parents and Will always told her how beautiful she was, but they were her family. They were supposed to say that. However, Max had told her that the boys at school stared at her sometimes. She’d never noticed, and she’s not ever been one to pay attention to that.

She pulled her hair out of it’s ponytail, running her hands quickly through the tangles in a feeble attempt to tame the unruly curls that God had given her. 

After she was done, she checked the time on her phone. 7:58pm. She hoped Mike wouldn’t be waiting too long for her, so she went to the food court to meet him.

Scanning the various people at the tables, she saw that none of them were occupied by Mike, so she sat in an empty booth, waiting for Mike to come. 

El nervously kept glancing at her phone, checking the time every so often.

8:07pm

8:11pm

8:16pm

8:22pm

The minutes passed by slowly, and El felt herself become more and more irritated. He had said 8:00pm. She even had written proof of the fact. So where the hell was he?

At 8:30pm, she decided that she’d had enough, and stood up to leave. She was so angry that she almost ran right into the person she’d been waiting for all night.

……..

Mike was at the school, setting up for the spaghetti fundraiser that he’d organized for the upcoming homecoming dance. The people at school always praised Mike for making the school dances great, but they never seemed to want to help with the fundraisers, which is why he and two other poor souls were currently setting up by themselves. They didn’t talk, not that Mike would want to talk to either of them anyways. 

They were two girls, Jennifer Hayes, who Mike could tolerate and maybe actually be friends with if she was always following around her best friend, the other girl, Stacy, who was quite possibly the rudest girl Mike had ever met. Unfortunately, they were the only two on the entire student council who volunteered to help him, and he’s pretty sure the only reason that Stacy is even here is because Jennifer made her come. 

It was a long job, but when they’d finally finished, the cafeteria looked nicely decorated for the event. This weekend was not going to be easy for Mike. He was practically spending the whole time with his mother, which was just about the best possible way to torture him. 

Luckily, he at least had tutoring lessons with a very pretty girl this evening. 

Yeah, Mike had definitely thought El was pretty. And pretty much ever since he met her, he’s kind of not been able to stop thinking about her. Mike’s not exactly into relationships and love, but he’s still a teenage boy. And El Hopper? El Hopper is one of the most beautiful girls Mike has ever seen. 

Mike checks his watch as he walks out of the school, feeling the cool fall air hit him. He has thirty minutes until he’s supposed to meet El, plenty of time. 

Unfortunately, though, nothing could seem to go right for Mike today… Because when Mike got out to his car, he discovered Troy, the most disgusting piece of shit that lives in Hawkins, leaning against it. 

“Hey frog face,” he taunted.

Mike rolled his eyes, “I thought you’d have come up with new material since middle school, but apparently not.”

“The name still applies, why would I change it?” Troy answered. 

“What do you want, Troy?” Mike asked.

“You know what I want,” he replied, crossing his arms intimidatingly.

“I told you I’m not gonna do that,” Mike said defiantly.

“And I told you what would happen if you didn’t.”

“You think I give a shit?” Mike challenged. “Move, I have somewhere to be.”

Instead of moving, however, Troy punched Mike straight in the side of the jaw, turning Mike’s head to the side quickly, but not knocking him down. 

Mike, not wanting to fight, tried to get around Troy again, but Troy then punched him again, this time busting his bottom lip.

“Dammit,” Mike whispered to himself, before another blow was delivered, to his shoulder, sending a shock through his torso. 

Mike knew he had to try to fight back then, and he did the best he could, using Troy’s strength against him, but he just didn’t have the willpower to overtake him. 

The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground, bleeding from his lip and nose. His shoulder hurt like hell. 

Troy leaned down to say, “This won’t be the only ass-kicking you get if you don’t do it. Got it?”

“Got it,” Mike managed to say, and then he was left alone. 

He just laid there for a few minutes before returning to reality. He didn’t want El to see him like this, so he went back into the school, into the boy’s restroom to wash the blood off his face. He managed to make himself look somewhat normal, but there really wasn’t anything he could do to prevent the bruises that were already forming from purpling. El would notice, but he was already running late, so he got into his car and drove to the mall.

……..

Mike ran into the food court, seeing El’s head of curly hair facing away from him, and he started to walk over towards her. Right before he got to the table, El stood up and turned around, almost running into him. He stopped her from doing so by placing his hands on her shoulders, holding her in place. 

She was surprised by the sudden contact at first, but then realized who it was and began glaring up at him. 

“Sorry, I know I’m late. I can explain, I promise,” Mike said. 

El didn’t say anything, but turned back around and sat in her seat, making a small huff as she sat down. 

“I was about to head over and then Troy met me at my car and decided to beat the shit out of me,” Mike explained. He saw El’s anger fade a little as she actually looked at his face, seeing the bruises that were slowly becoming more distinct. 

“Why would he beat the shit out of you?” she asked. 

“Because he keeps threatening me to get my older sister to buy him beer. Apparently he pissed off his cousin, who usually gives him some, and now he’s trying to take advantage of the fact that I’m not exactly strong enough to win a fight, and I have a sister who’s 21.”

El no longer looked angry, which Mike hoped was a good sign, and she wasn’t going to revoke the tutoring sessions. 

“I’m really sorry that I just left you stranded here. I would have called or texted if I had your number,” he finished.

“Give me your phone,” El said.

“What?” Mike asked, confused. 

“I said, give me your phone,” she repeated.

Mike unlocked his phone and handed it over. He watched as El typed something and then passed the phone back to him. 

“There,” she said. “Now you have my number. Next time you’re going to be late, call me.”

Mike could hardly stop the smile that spread across his face, as he looked back at this beautiful girl, who was now grinning back at him. 

……..

They worked until the mall officially closed at 10pm, and a mall security guard kicked them out. El realized very quickly after Mike arrived, that he was smart. He just needed a little extra help catching up. 

El was more than happy to oblige. 

The whole session had been exhilarating for El. Yes, she was helping him with schoolwork, but it gave her an excuse to stare at Mike without seeming weird. Every time he asked her a question or looked at her while she explained something, she felt her pulse quicken. At some point, Mike had bought them a basket of fries and they ate as they worked. 

El hated when the security guard came over to kick them out. She didn’t want to leave. It was as if his very presence was intoxicating, but sadly, they had no choice but to go.

They walked out of the now abandoned mall together, talking as they went. 

“No way! You like Harry Potter too?” Mike said in surprise. 

“Yeah, of course. Who doesn’t like Harry Potter?” El answered, giggling at his reaction.

“Which is your favorite?” he asked. 

“Out of the books, definitely Prisoner of Azkaban, out of the movies…. I really loved Deathly Hallows Part 2,” El replied.

“Definitely, they’re all really good though,” Mike agreed. 

El walked up to her bike, and pulled it out of the bike rack. 

“You don’t have a car?” Mike asked.

“No, I’m probably the only senior in the entire school who doesn’t even have a license. I’ve been saving up for a car… When I have enough money for one, I’ll get my license,” El explained. 

“You want a ride? I could fit your bike in the back of my car,” Mike offered. 

El felt a pang of excitement fill her heart, and instead of turning down the offer, as she usually would, she decided to accept it. “Okay,” she said. 

“You should go ahead and get your license anyways, you know. That way you can practice with other people’s cars or your parents’s,” Mike suggested as he led her towards his car. 

“That’s a good idea. You’re pretty smart for a boy that asked me to tutor him,” El teased. 

“Yeah, well… I’ll admit that sometimes I don’t really try as hard as I should,” Mike revealed, opening the trunk of his car and lifting El’s bike into it. 

“I get it. School can really be pointless sometimes,” El replied.

“Says the girl who never misses a day and gets perfect grades.” Mike and El got into the car and Mike started the engine.

“Hey!” El yelled, playfully smacking Mike’s arm.

Mike drove El home as they continued to tease one another.

Ten minutes later, they had reached El’s house. She reluctantly unbuckled herself and got out of Mike’s car, as he pulled her bike out of the trunk. 

“Thank you for the ride,” she said. 

“No problem. Thanks for being so understanding about earlier,” Mike answered. 

“It’s not your fault. Don’t feel responsible for what that asshole did to you,” El replied. She wanted to step closer to him. She wanted to hug him or kiss him or…. just do something, anything. But she stopped herself because, while her heart was telling her to go for it, her brain was telling her that they barely knew each other. And she knew that right now her brain was right, so she stayed back, feet planted firmly into the ground. 

“I’ll see you Monday? Unless you wanted to have another tutoring session before then?” Mike asked. 

“Oh, um… I’m not doing anything on Sunday, if you wanted to work some more. Totally up to you,” El answered, hating how eager and desperate she was. 

“Yeah, I… I think that should work. I’ll text you the time and place?” 

“Sure, see you later, Mike.”

……..

El snuck back into her house as quietly as she could, seeing as it was now almost eleven and her parents were likely in bed by now. She crept up the stairs to her bedroom, hoping to not be caught. 

However, upon entering her room, El found her very nosy stepbrother sitting on her bed, reading a comic book.

“Can’t you do that in your own room?” she said snarkily.

“I could, but then I might miss you coming back from your date,” Will teased, grinning evilly at her.

El rolled her eyes and set her backpack on the floor. “It was not a date.”

“Really? So you weren’t both just staring at each other all lovey dovey in the driveway not five minutes ago?” Will replied. 

“Will, it was not like that, okay?” El glared at him.

“Okay, fine. But he likes you too. I can tell by the way he looks at you,” Will told her.

“You’re delusional. There’s no way he likes me,” El began to search for her pajamas in her dresser as Will continued to pester her.

“El, I mean it. You’re the one who is too caught up in her own feelings that you can’t see clearly what is right in front of you.”

“That is not true,” she said. 

“It is and you know it,” Will added. 

“Please, can you just give it a rest? Let me sleep in peace, please,” she begged. 

“Alright, I’m going… love you even though you’re the one that’s delusional,” he said as he left the room.

El rolled her eyes and got ready for bed. 

……..

Saturday morning, El woke up in a great mood and practically skipped down to breakfast, but she toned her happiness down a little as she walked into the kitchen. 

She knew that either Will or her father was going to give her shit about last night anyways, so she might as well not give them any more fuel. 

She came in and grabbed a plate of scrambled eggs and bacon and sat at her spot at the table. 

Luck was with her today, though. Because other than a few snide remarks whispered to her from Will, no one said anything about her tutoring session with Mike. 

But of course, that didn’t mean she didn’t think about him the whole time. 

Somewhere in her train of thoughts, she remembered what Mike had said about getting her license. 

“So, I was thinking of going ahead and getting my license. You know, so I can practice for when I get my own car,” she said. 

Hopper shared an apprehensive look with Joyce, before addressing El. 

“What’s with the sudden change of mind?” Hopper asked. 

“The reason I just said,” El answered. 

“Right,” Hopper replied quietly. 

“Is... something wrong?” El questioned, seeing the strange look on her father’s face. 

“Will,” Joyce suddenly said. “Can you go upstairs for a minute? We have to talk to El about something.”

El looked at both Hopper and Joyce, feeling frightened by the serious looks on their faces. 

Will did as he was told, taking his plate with him as he and El shared an equally confused glance. He didn’t know what was going on either. 

“El,” Hopper said when Will had gone. “We’ve been keeping something from you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! The next chapter is where the plot is really going to start taking off, so stay tuned!


	3. Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El finds out something about herself that turns her life upside down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys!! Sorry this took me a little longer than expected, especially on that cliffhanger, but here it is! Hope you enjoy!

“What’s wrong? Is there some reason why I can’t get my license?” El asked. She was extremely confused as to why something as simple as a driver’s test would set her parents off. They, however, were acting as if it was something very serious.

“Nothings… wrong exactly. It’s just… El, we should’ve told you a long time ago, but since you want to get your license, you’d have to see your birth certificate,” Hopper began.

“Okay… do you not have it? Is it lost?” El questioned.

“No, no, we have it. And even if we didn’t, the county has all your files, including your birth certificate, but that’s not the point,” Hopper answered.

“Okay, so what is it?” El asked again.

“El…. I’m not on your birth certificate… I’m… I’m not your biological father,” Hopper admitted. 

“But… you said that you and my mother had a relationship for a few years and had me in the middle of it,” El said, feeling more confused than ever.

“I know, honey, but I lied. I know I shouldn’t have, but you were just young and I didn’t want to upset you by telling you….. telling you that…. you’re adopted,” Hopper revealed. 

El felt her whole world shift. Hearing the words, “you’re adopted” had been so unexpected, she felt her blood run cold. 

“Honey, this doesn’t change anything,” Joyce added. “We love you very much even if you’re not biologically ours. You’re still our child.”

“I can’t believe this…” El whispered. “Does Will know?” 

“No, we decided not to tell him in case you didn’t want anyone to know,” Joyce answered. 

“I… uh, I need some space today. Can I be excused?” El asked. 

“Of course sweetie, take your time,” Joyce said. Hopper nodded in agreement. 

El stood from her seat at the table, leaving her plate of food, having lost her appetite, and went up the stairs to her bedroom. She shut the door and didn’t come out for the rest of the day. 

……..

Mike isn’t necessarily the type of guy to crush on someone he barely knows, but he found himself eager to see and talk to El again. So much so, that he couldn’t wait until Sunday, and very conveniently, he now had El’s phone number so he could text her. 

He texted just after noon, keeping it simple.

Mike: hey, el. just testing out the number to make sure it works. hope you’re having a good day. :)

He didn’t expect an answer right away. He knew El had a lot going on with schoolwork and writing for the school newspaper, so he wasn’t worried. 

A few hours go by before Mike realizes he still hasn’t received a text back. He tried not to take it personally, but decided on sending another text just to be sure. This time he tried to make the text seem more professional, so he didn’t seem worried.

Mike: tomorrow is still good for you right? 

Mike was still getting a bad feeling about the radio silence, when his mother called him down for family dinner, the first he’d been to this week.

He went to the dining room, finding his mother and his little sister, Holly, sitting down. His father was also there, but he looked barely present. Mike wasn’t an idiot. He knew his mother had been trying to get Ted to come to dinner every night the same way she had been pestering Mike. And he also knew his parents’ marriage was an absolute sham, and was likely never great.

“Michael, tell me how your tutoring is going,” his mother asked as he sat down.

“Oh, um, it’s good. My tutor is really good at writing, which is what I need help with,” Mike said.

“What kinda person needs tutoring in writing?” Ted replied, somewhat under his breath.

Mike glared at his father. 

“Ted!” Karen scolded, shooting him a dirty look. 

“I’m just saying. You speak English, don’t you?” Mike’s father continued, shoveling a spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth.

“It’s not that simple,” Mike defended himself.

Ted scoffed, but didn’t say anything else. Mike knew from the look his mother was giving his father that they’d be up late fighting about him again tonight, that is if his father actually chooses to stick around tonight. 

“Who is it?” Karen asked.

“What?” Mike said, confused.

“Who is your tutor?” she clarified.

“Oh, it’s El Hopper. She writes for the school paper,” Mike explained.

“Is she related to Chief Hopper? We went to school with him, didn’t we Ted?” Ted didn’t speak.

“Uh, yeah, he’s her father,” Mike said. 

The rest of dinner went by in a blur, as they went from one topic to another, talking about nothing of real importance. Mike kept glancing under the table at his phone, hoping to have a text from El, but it never came.

He sent one final text later that night.

Mike: hope you’re okay. see u soon. :)

He fell asleep an hour after sending the text, still having not received a response.

……..

El woke up at 1:28am, feeling drowsy and disoriented. She didn’t know when she fell asleep, but she knew it had been in the early afternoon. Thinking about that led her to think about what happened before, and she didn’t really want to think about that. The horrifying revelation that her life was a lie had led her to her bedroom, where she’d kept the door shut tightly all day, refusing to talk to anyone. 

Will had knocked a couple times, and she’d considered opening the door for him, since he didn’t know, but she decided she wanted to be alone. She turned her phone off and laid down, hoping to gain some peace. At some point, she’d fallen asleep. 

El knew that the rest of her family was asleep now, although there was a chance that Will might still be up. 

She got out of bed, her stomach growling angrily at her for not finishing breakfast and then skipping lunch and dinner, and walked down the stairs to get food.

She rummaged around for a little while, opening the fridge and looking at her options when she noticed a little Tupperware bowl with her name on it. Inside of it, there was a stack of three Eggo waffles with whip cream and two cherries. 

El grinned to herself, knowing that Will had made this for her. He always gave her his cherry when they had Eggo extravaganzas, and his slightly sloppy scrawl had clearly written her name on the post-it note stuck to the Tupperware. 

Even if Will was sometimes very good at playing the annoying brother, he loved her like a sister. A real sister. 

El began to eat her Eggo extravaganza when she heard someone coming down the stairs. She briefly had an urge to run and hide for fear of Hopper or Joyce trying to talk to her, but she was in luck. 

It was Will, looking cautiously at her, waiting for her to tell him to go away. El knew from the look in his eyes that he would go if she told him to. 

She spoke up quietly, and it barely sounded like her own voice, “It’s okay. You can come sit with me.”

Will walked over and sat in the chair across from her, and asked, “You okay?”

El almost laughed at the question, “No, not really.”

“Mom wouldn’t tell me why you locked yourself in your room all day. She said that it was up to you to tell me… if you wanted to,” Will said.

El looked at her stepbrother, knowing he so badly wanted to know what was going on. 

“You don’t have to tell me, but I’m here for you,” he added. 

El decided that she would have to tell him. Will was one of her best friends, and he needed to know. “I’m adopted,” she whispered.

“What? So Hopper…?” He looked confused, and El didn’t blame him.

“Is not my real father,” El finished. 

Will looked at her sadly. “It’s okay, El. Just because he’s not your biological father, doesn’t mean he doesn’t love you like one.”

“I know… it’s just a lot to take in, you know? And I’m angry that no one told me until now, and the only reason they decided to tell me is because I need my birth certificate to get my license and my birth certificate clearly will not say Jim Hopper on it,” El took the last bite of her Eggos. 

Will reached over, holding El’s hand. “This doesn’t change anything. Not who you are or how much we all love you. Especially not how much I love you.”

“Thanks, Will. I love you too.”

“You should probably get some sleep,” Will said. 

“I’ve been sleeping all day,” El replied. 

“Well then, find something else fun to do. Take your mind off of it for a while, okay?” Will suggested. 

“Yeah okay.” 

Will went back to his room and El to hers. 

El saw her phone sitting on her nightstand, and realized that she hadn’t touched it since before noon. She turned it on and went to answer some of her messages. 

Max had sent her several texts. 

Max: hey bitch u wanna go see it chapter 2 next week?  
Max: girl, u gonna answer me? it’s been like 9 yrs.  
Max: will just texted me saying u won’t come out of your room. U ok?  
Max: whatever it is, I will always be there, u know that. 

El smiled, loving that her best friend was so supportive. She typed back a response, knowing that Max could be up and wouldn’t be bothered by the late night text. 

El: I know. Thanks and love you <3   
El: and yes we can go see it chapter 2

El continued scrolling through her notifications when she found three texts from Mike. 

Mike: hey, el. just testing out the number to make sure it works. hope you’re having a good day. :)  
Mike: tomorrow is still good for you right?   
Mike: hope you’re okay. see u soon. :)

El couldn’t help the small smile that spread across her face and the flittering of her heart as she read the texts. She could tell just by these short texts that he was concerned and he actually cared, and it was so so so sweet. 

By the time El had finished typing a response, she had a giant grin on her face.

El: Yes, tomorrow still works. Sorry for the delayed reply, I kinda had a bad day today. 

El’s heart beat wildly in her chest when only five minutes later Mike answered. 

Mike: I’m sorry, what happened?

El: Long story, maybe later?

Mike: sure, u don’t have to tell me if u don’t want to. I was thinking we meet tomorrow at Benny’s for lunch, say noon?

El: Great, can’t wait!

El might’ve regretted her eagerness if she hadn’t had such a horrendous day. She was taking any joy she could get right now. 

Mike: me either ;)

El grinned widely, and rolled over, managing to get a little more sleep before morning, even if she was having a lot of dreams about a certain boy named Mike Wheeler. 

……..

Mike had trouble sleeping Saturday night. Maybe it was something he ate or maybe his brain couldn’t turn off… or maybe it was the fact that he could hear his parents yelling at each other until almost one in the morning. Holly was a deep sleeper, so Mike hoped she hadn’t been awake the whole time, but he couldn’t. Mike tossed and turned, waiting for the noise to stop. Finally, it was over and his mother had gone to bed, and his father was likely in the Lazy boy downstairs. 

Mike had still been awake when he got a text back from El. 

Talking to El made his palms sweat and his heart beat loudly in his chest. He’d never experienced anything like this before. He couldn’t deny that he was getting a crush on El, and it made him even more excited that he seemed to actually have a shot. He reread her last text to him over and over again, feeling the anticipation of seeing her again. 

Mike got very little sleep that night, and this time, it was all because he couldn’t stop thinking about one certain brunette. 

When he woke up, having gotten a few solid hours of sleep, he wanted to go meet El straightaway, but he still had a couple hours before lunch. 

He didn’t know that only five miles away, El was having the same thoughts. 

Mike tried to make time go by faster by doing all his other homework he hadn’t finished yet, and actually finished all of it before he needed to get ready to go see El. Maybe seeing El was going to improve his grades in all his classes, not just English. 

At 11:30, Mike remembered that El didn’t have a car, and he got an idea. He quickly changed, putting on a plain navy blue t-shirt and jeans, then running out to his car and heading to El’s.

……..

El had been putting on lip gloss, just about to leave for Benny’s on her bike, when she heard Will call for her. 

“El!” he yelled from downstairs.

“What?!” she yelled back.

“Come down here!” he answered. 

El rolled her eyes, but went anyways. As she came around the corner at the bottom of the stairs, she saw something she hadn’t expected. 

Mike Wheeler. Standing in her living room. 

“Mike? What are you doing here? I thought we were meeting at Benny’s at noon?” El asked surprised. Will was trying, and failing, to hide his grin behind one of his hands. 

“Well, I realized that you don’t have a car, so I thought it would just be easier if I came to pick you up… Should I have asked first?” he looked a little nervous, and it made El’s heart melt. 

“No, it’s okay! I…” El said. Then she saw Will’s face still watching the interaction. “I-uh, I’ll go get my bag and then we can go.”

She turned back up the stairs and left Will and Mike alone in the living room.

“So, uh, you’re her stepbrother right, Will?” Mike asked casually. 

“Yeah… do you like her?” Will questioned. 

Mike coughed, “Uh, what?”

“I asked if you like her… because the way you were looking at her… you looked like you like her,” Will replied.

“I-uh, I mean, she’s…” Mike hesitated. He didn’t really know Will, but he seemed like a nice guy. Still, he didn’t really wanna reveal his crush to someone he just met. 

“You do, don’t you?” Will continued.

Mike sighed. He wasn’t getting out of this one. “Yeah, yeah I do.”

“Thought so…” Will said, and began to walk out of the room, but before he was out the door, he turned around. “You have a shot… just so you know. Don’t blow it.” 

Mike stared back surprisedly, until El came back down the stairs with her bag.

“Okay, ready to go!” she exclaimed. “See ya, Will!”

El pulled Mike towards the door by grabbing his arm. He was still in shock from his conversation from Will, and he wasn’t sure if he was going to recover anytime soon.

……..

El had been having the best and worst month of her life. She didn’t know how she managed to feel both happy and depressed at the same time. 

She was happy because things were going great with Mike. They’d had their tutoring sessions, usually three times a week, and they would always talk afterwards for a while, never getting bored of the conversation. When El was with Mike, she felt alive. Granted they weren’t even a couple (yet), but she was still enjoying being one of Mike’s friends immensely. They stopped to talk to each other in the halls at school and they sometimes even ate lunch together when they were both short for time during the week. They texted all the time too, sending each other funny anecdotes from their days and little assurances when they needed it. 

Mike was the first person El talked to in the mornings and the last person she talked to before she fell asleep. She’d always send him a goodnight text, and in the morning, she would wake up to a text from Mike saying things like, “Hope you have a great day!”

El hadn’t told him about being adopted yet. 

El’s crush on Mike had turned into complete obsession, which Max and Will constantly had to refrain from making fun of her for, since they both knew he was the reason she was okay right now. He was the main reason that El wasn’t spiraling. 

Anytime El wasn’t with Mike or thinking about him, she was sad. Her parents were out there somewhere, and she had no idea where they were or what they were doing. Of course, she could never come to love them the way she loved Joyce and Hopper, but still… they were her parents. 

A part of her felt… incomplete or broken or something. She was numb. 

Numbed by her infatuation with Mike. Numbed by the love that came from Hopper, Joyce, and Will. Numbed by her busy schedule. 

And so it took a whole month for her to realize what she needed to do to get better. 

……..

“I think you don’t need me anymore,” El said, handing Mike his paper back. They were sitting in Mike’s basement, having one of their usual tutoring sessions.

“What?” Mike looked at her confused. 

“That’s the best paper you’ve written so far. I didn’t even help you with it, Mike. You’ve got this…” El hesitated before continuing. “You don’t need tutoring anymore.”

“It’s that good? Really?” Mike asked excitedly. 

“Absolutely, you have a talent, especially when it comes to creative writing. You just needed me to bring it out in you, but I think you’ve got it now,” El answered honestly. She didn’t love the idea of being done with the tutoring sessions. She loved being able to get some time alone with Mike during the week. 

Mike made a face, almost as if he was thinking along the same lines that she was…?

“Well, if we’re done with tutoring, we need to find something else to do, because I don’t want to stop seeing you,” he admitted. 

El could hardly believe her ears. Mike was actually saying the words that she didn’t have the guts to. 

“Can I make a confession?” Mike asked her. She nodded and stayed silent, feeling her heart beat crazily in her chest. 

“I kinda haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since I met you. Maybe I should’ve said something a while ago… no I definitely should have, but I was scared. You’re this amazing person, who’s smart and funny and beautiful. You’re so intimidatingly perfect, I couldn’t say anything before. I.. like you, El. In more ways than friendship. I have feelings for you.”

El couldn’t stop the grin that spread across her face. “You do?”

“Very much so,” Mike revealed, sighing in relief seeing her reaction. 

“Me too,” El said. “I have feelings for you too.”

Mike smiled happily. 

“I have to tell you something,” El suddenly said, seriously. “Only my dad, stepmom, Will, and Max know this about me. And you were next person on my list to tell.”

“What is it?” Mike replied, watching her cautiously. 

El reached for his hand, partially because she needed a little more strength, and partially because she could.

“Last month, when I had a really bad day and I didn’t text you back, I had just found out that… I’m adopted,” El told him. “I’ve really been struggling to deal with it, mostly because my dad had lied to me my whole life about how I’d came into the world. Seeing you, talking to you was the only thing that kept me from completely losing my mind… I’m still trying to understand, to wrap my head around it all, but nothing is working… I have an idea of something I would like to try, but I don’t even know if… no, it’s too crazy and I don’t even know that I could do it.”

“El… it’s okay to be upset. And whatever you need to do to feel better about it, I’ll support you. Hell, I’ll help you. No matter what, okay? I care about you,” Mike replied. 

“Thank you, Mike,” El smiled at him. “But what I want to do… It’s crazy, and I would need your car.”

“What is it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Hit me up in the comments! What did you think?


	4. Split Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike and El go on a mission. 
> 
> Hopper isn't happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all. This took me longer than expected because it didn't transfer from my brain into writing very well. Plus this chapter is a little shorter than what I had originally planned, but I wanted to get this out to you guys ASAP and it had a natural stopping point, so I hope you forgive me for the shorter chapter. 
> 
> Also, I had like... 3(?) papers to write for my classes in the last week, so to say I didn't feel like writing is, well, an understatement. 
> 
> This chapter is very plot-heavy, and although Mike and El have scenes together through it's entirety, it's not really about them (yet). This is more of a set up for the main arc of the story, which will lead up to some more Mileven-centric scenes... I promise :)

El wasn’t exactly sure where to look for her birth certificate, and she hated going through her parents’ things in their bedroom without asking first, but she didn’t want them to make a big deal out of it. El had avoided talking about the adoption with Hopper and Joyce. She felt like all they did these days was pity her. Maybe if no one talked about it for a long time, they would all forget that it had even been an issue. 

She did want to talk about it. Just… not to them. Don’t get her wrong, she loves them with all her heart. But she’s tired of the sad looks they give her and the way they treat her like she’s going to break… as if she isn’t supposed to break, but is going to anyways. And would that even be so bad?

So that’s why El is ransacking her parents’ bedroom while they’re both at work and she’s supposed to be at school. She searches for what feels like forever, and finally finds a lockbox.

The lockbox requires a code to be unlocked, and El racks her brain for what it could be. She tries a few combinations of things, birthdays, Hopper and Joyce’s wedding day, before having an epiphany and typing the correct code: 1985.

Hopper had once told her that the eighties were the best decade, and she remembered that he said the best summer he ever had was in ’85. He was pretty predictable. The box opened and she rifled through several papers. There were a lot of random documents from insurance to taxes and whatnot. There were the birth certificates for everyone in the family, including her own, which she grabbed out of the pile quickly. She went to put the rest of the papers back when she found another certificate with her name, this one a certificate of adoption. She grabbed the paper and put it aside to take with her as well. She filed everything else back into place and relocked the box, then put the box back where she had found it. She took a quick scan of the room to make sure it looked the same as it had when she had entered.

Birth certificate and adoption papers in hand, El returned to her own bedroom, where she put the documents into her shoulder bag. She grabbed a second bag, a duffle bag out from under her bed. She had packed it last night with clothes and everything she would need for a week or so. 

El quickly ran down the stairs, and made her way outside, where Mike was waiting in his car. 

She opened the door and got in. Mike handed her a breakfast sandwich from Benny’s.

“You ready?” he asked her. 

“Yeah, I think so,” she answered, shoving her duffle bag into the backseat beside Mike’s bag. 

“Where are we headed first?” Mike said.

“Well, it says I was born in a small hospital in Williamsport,” El told him. “So we can start by looking for a woman named Terry Ives there.”

“Okay, that’s two and half hours from here. That’s not so bad… didn’t you say you were adopted in New York though?” Mike began to drive.

“Yes, I was. That’s where my dad was living when he found me,” El took a bite of her sandwich.

……..

The drive to Williamsport went by quickly, El having a lot to think about. Mike turned on the radio and they fell into a comfortable silence for a majority of the way there. 

They pulled into the small town’s corporation limit at 11:00am. “Where exactly are you wanting to go? Who would know where you’re mother would be?” Mike asked. 

“Well, if Williamsport is anything like Hawkins, everyone knows everyone… so I guess we start asking around?” El suggested. 

Mike pulled into the main part of town, parking along the side of the street. The two teens got out and looked for someone approachable to ask if they knew a Terry Ives.

There was a young woman pushing a baby in a stroller, and El walked up to her. 

“Hi, sorry to bother you, but do you happen to know of a Terry Ives that lives somewhere near here?” El asked.

“Terry Ives?” the woman replied, puzzled. 

“Yes, she’s my mother. I’m trying to find her. We haven’t seen each other in, um, years,” El told her. 

“Sorry, hun. I don’t know her,” the woman answered. “Good luck.”

The woman strolled the baby away.

Mike and El kept asking around, searching for someone, anyone who had even heard the name Terry Ives.

“Maybe she was only here for a short time. Maybe she never actually lived here,” Mike guessed after the fiftieth person.

“We have to find someone who knew her, even if that is the case,” El was adamant. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw an older woman, who was walking out of a bakery.

“Excuse me,” El said to catch her attention. “Have you ever heard of the name Terry Ives?”

“Terry Ives? Why, she was the young woman who used to live down the road from me, oh I don’t know, …..eighteen years or so ago,” the woman answered. 

“You knew her?” El stepped closer, excitement filling her.

“I thought I knew her pretty well. She and her boyfriend were very friendly. We sometimes shared Sunday brunch,” the woman told her. “I haven’t seen her since they sold the house after they had their baby girl.”

“Do you know where she is now?” El pressed on.

“No, I haven’t heard directly from her since she moved…. But she did tell me once that she’d always loved New York City. Maybe she ended up there… What are you trying to find her for?” the woman questioned.

“I.. um… I’m her daughter,” El admitted. 

The woman stared for a minute, “Huh, you do look like her… and a bit like your father too. You don’t know any of this?” 

“No… she gave me up,” El told the woman.

“Well, that doesn’t sound like her at all. She was obsessed with you. During her whole pregnancy, she couldn’t stop talking about how beautiful you would be… I hope you find her,” the woman said. 

“Thank you,” El replied. 

The woman walked away and El felt like she could cry. She turned around, back to Mike, who pulled her into a hug. 

“Hey, it’s okay. We’ll go to New York. We’ll find her,” he whispered as El snuggled against his chest. 

It was 12:30pm when they left for NYC.

……..

“Hey, is El okay?” Max asked Will as they walked out of the high school at the end of the day. “I mean, I know you told me she’s sick, but she hasn’t answered my texts.”

“She’s probably just asleep. She sleeps all the time when she’s sick,” Will said, logically.

“Yeah, but she has read them. It says she read my texts three hours ago… Is she actually sick? Did you see her?” Max added.

“I saw her. She came into the kitchen to tell me to get her work because she wasn’t feeling well. She didn’t look that sick, but she’s not usually one to lie,” Will explained. 

“No, she’s not…” Max agreed. “But she’s been on the edge for a while now, do you think she could just… snap? I’m just worried about her.”

“I know, but I really think she just wanted the day off. I mean, I don’t blame her. It’s Friday. Maybe she just wanted to start her weekend early or something,” Will replied.

“Maybe…. Did you notice that Mike wasn’t here today either?” Max continued.

“Shit, did we not get the memo that it was senior skip day or something?” Will joked.

“Will,” Max pleaded. 

“Seriously, Max, why are you so worried? So what if they both skipped today? You gonna come up with some conspiracy as to where they were?” Will reached his car and opened the door, throwing his backpack into the passenger seat.

“I don’t know… Best Friend Intuition?… Just.. when you get home, tell her to call me, okay?” Max asked. 

“Sure, sure,” Will nodded, getting into his car. 

Max began to ride her skateboard down the street.

Will drove the ten minutes to his house, finding that both Joyce and Hopper were still at work.

“Hey, El! I’m home!” Will shouted as he walked through the door. “You want your homework?”

He received no response, so he went up to El’s room, where he was sure he’d find her sleeping.

However, Will did not find El. He did find a piece of paper with his name on it, lying on her bed. He reached for it, and opened it.

Dear Will,

Don’t freak out. Don’t let your mom or my dad freak out. I’m fine. I’m safe. 

I’m going on a trip for the next few days. I don’t know exactly when I’ll be back. 

I’ve turned off the location on my phone. Don’t try and find me. 

I’m not alone. Don’t worry about me. 

Love you. See you soon.

Love, El

“Shit,” Will whispered. Max was right. 

……..

“Will knows I’m gone,” El said. They were somewhere in Ohio, not far from Columbus. “He’s mad.”

El looked at the text he had sent her.

Will: El, what the hell?

Just then, another text came through. This time, from Max.

Max: el, what are you doing??!!

She knew they were probably texting each other trying to figure out what the hell she was thinking, or if she even was.

El was starting to wonder that too. 

They’d been on the road for hours, and every inch further she got from Hawkins, the worse she felt. She felt like she was betraying Hopper, who even though he wasn’t her father biologically, she’d loved him like one her whole life. She was going to worry him. And she was going to have to pay for it when she got back. Will couldn’t keep this a secret from their parents. She didn’t expect him to. 

“He’ll forgive you,” Mike answered. “They all will. This is just something you have to do.”

El smiled at him. She and Mike had made their confessions to one another a day ago, but that didn’t stop Mike from putting his life on hold to help her discover herself. She wasn’t even sure what they were yet. They hadn’t put a name to it. Boyfriend and girlfriend? Were they dating? 

Mike reached for her hand, and she took it. 

Boyfriend and girlfriend. 

That’s what they were. 

It didn’t need to be said. 

Sometimes you just knew.

……..

“What do you mean she left?” Hopper asked, staring at his stepson with a fierce expression that he was sure was frightening him, but he couldn’t reign it back.

“I mean, she’s not here. She left and she said she’d be back in a few days, but she’s not sure exactly when,” Will told him.

“Honey, did she tell you anything else?” Joyce questioned in a much calmer voice than Hopper had been capable of.

“Just that we shouldn’t try to find her and that she’s safe,” Will explained. 

“Safe? How? How did she even leave? She doesn’t have a car or her license,” Hopper said.

“I have a hunch, but she hasn’t told me directly…” Will whispered. He hated giving away his sister’s secrets.

“She’s not taking a bus is she?” Joyce asked, concerned. 

“No, I don’t think so…. I think.. I think she’s with Mike Wheeler… the guy she’s tutoring…. He has a car,” Will admitted. 

Hopper ran a hand down his face in agitation. “I thought they were just friends?” he sighed.

“They were, but… I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more than that now…” Will replied. 

“Any clue how far away she could be?” Joyce added.

“No, she turned the location on her phone off, so I can’t check.”

“Shit.”

……..

It was 1:00am by the time Mike and El got to New York City. Instead of going straight into the city, they found a motel about a half hour outside the city, so they wouldn’t have to worry about being out in the city this late at night. There was a small moment of awkwardness when they got to the room and there was only one bed. It wasn’t like either of them didn’t want to share the bed. No, in fact, they both very much wanted to share it. But they were nervous about what the other thought. 

El was the one to break the awkwardness by pulling Mike by the hand towards the bed and sitting down, as she began to go through her bag to find pajamas to wear. Mike smiled and did the same. 

El took a shower first, then she gave the bathroom over to Mike so he could shower, while she turned on some mind-numbing drama on TV. 

Later, around 2:00am, they finally fell asleep, curled up under the blankets together. El took the leap and snuggled into Mike’s arms, which held her so perfectly, like they were two pieces of the same puzzle. 

“Thank you for coming with me,” El whispered to him in the dark.

“I’d do anything for you,” he answered, barely audible. 

And El knew it was the truth. It was like they were inevitable. They were destined for each other. It was an immediate connection. Two months ago, she’d have been scared to sleep in the same bed as a boy and afraid to fall in love. But now? El wanted nothing more. 

Mike was El’s kryptonite. He was her weakness. He was her strength. 

She knew she was well on her way to love. Maybe she was already there. 

……..

Hopper paced his bedroom as Joyce sat on the bed watching him. 

“Hop,” she said calmly. “Hop.”

Hopper looked at her to show he was listening, but kept pacing. 

“She’s okay, Hop. It’s not like she’s this little girl anymore. She’s almost an adult. She can handle herself,” Joyce told him.

“That doesn’t mean she gets to make these kind of irresponsible decisions without talking to us… What is she doing?” he retorted. 

“The girl never really had a rebellious stage, you know… Maybe this is it. There are worse things she could do, Hop.”

“Worse than running away with some boy she barely knows?” Hopper nearly hissed. 

“She didn’t run away, Hop. She’s going on an impromptu trip with a boy, who I know for a fact, she knows very well… Just, can we go to sleep and worry about it tomorrow,” Joyce begged. This had been going on for a while now. 

Hopper huffed, but went to his side of the bed and sat down. “She’s going to get the talking-to of a lifetime when she gets back.”

“Now, you better not be too hard on her. She’s had a rough month and you know it. Let’s get some sleep,” Joyce said, turning off the lamp beside their bed, and making the whole room pitch black.

Hopper didn’t really get much sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super big thanks for reading! 
> 
> I have the rest of this mapped out, and the amount of chapters could easily change. BUT if I were to guess at this point, I would say 10 chapters total, the 10th being an epilogue. 
> 
> So... almost halfway there?


	5. Dr. Martin Brenner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> El finds out more about her parents, and it isn't what she wanted to hear.
> 
> WARNING: GRAPHIC DESCRIPTIONS OF SUICIDE  
DO NOT READ IF THIS WILL TRIGGER YOU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Omg, so um... it's been a hot minute since I updated this. Sorry about that, haha. 
> 
> I have a few reasons for taking a break:
> 
> 1\. Writer's block ( I know, so unoriginal, but it happens :/ )
> 
> 2\. Finals/Christmas Break/Traveling got in the way. I couldn't get much done and I was almost never alone, so I couldn't even brainstorm.
> 
> 3\. I've written well over 90,000 words for ST fanfiction in the last year, so I needed a break! 
> 
> Fortunately, I believe I will have some time to work on this fic for the next few weeks. So, fingers crossed, I will be able to update quickly. I also know where I'm going with this one, so hopefully writer's block won't get me again.

Mike could not believe this was happening. El was actually kissing him, like… a lot. Hell, they were making out. In a hotel room. Hundreds of miles away from their parents. 

Shit. This was escalating. 

He can’t remember when it started. He can’t remember who started it. He can’t even remember waking up. 

Mike didn’t know what time it was. El was kissing him. 

Mike felt El’s hands reaching for the hem of his shirt. Was she going to take it off of him? Something wasn’t right here. El wouldn’t be this forward… would she?

Suddenly Mike sat up, breathing heavily, and looking over at El, who was still sleeping. 

Damn his teenage hormones that make him have dreams like that. Although that explained El’s out-of-character actions in the little make-out session. 

Mike half wished he hadn’t woken up from that dream. He really, really, really wanted to be kissing El like that. But they hadn’t had a single kiss yet. El was too distracted by her mission right now, and Mike knew that if he tried to kiss her while she was this depressed, it would be like taking advantage of her, and he never would do that. 

El was sleeping so soundly, Mike didn’t want to move, but he’d been watching her for a while now, and it might seem a little creepy if he kept doing it, so he got up and grabbed an outfit for the day. 

Mike lifted his watch off of the nightstand. 9:02am. 

He quickly changed in the bathroom, before going back to El and shaking her a little to wake her. 

“El,” he said softly. 

“Hm?” she replied in a half asleep stance, as she began to open her eyes. 

“It’s nine, do you want to get up and get going?” he asked her. 

El nodded, and began to disentangle her way out of the bedsheets. 

She grabbed her bag to take to the bathroom, then paused, turning towards Mike. “Can you find some coffee? I need to wake up,” she mumbled. 

“Of course,” Mike answered, grabbing his wallet and turning to head out the door. 

……..

Max had come over to the Hoppers’ house first thing on Saturday, wanting to talk with Will and try to figure out exactly what El was doing. 

The two teens were sitting talking with Joyce, while Hopper was at work. 

“I knew it,” Max said. “I knew she was out with Mike the second they weren’t at school yesterday.”

“I honestly thought that she was just sick,” Will replied, hoping to earn back some credibility. 

“This Mike boy… you said he’s a good guy? She’s totally safe with him?” Joyce asked them.

Max laughed. “Mike is harmless. He’s like a baby giraffe, and he stares at El with these googly eyes. I’m sure they’re fine, it’s just annoying that she just decided to up and leave without telling anyone and leaving a little note for Will.”

“What could they even be doing anyway?” Will asked. 

“Maybe she just wanted a little getaway. She’s had a hard month,” Joyce suggested. 

Max frowned, “My best friend intuition is telling me that they have a goal. Neither one of them are the type to just leave without a real reason.”

“That’s true,” Joyce agreed. 

“But what is it?” Will pondered. 

……..

El was packing their bags back into Mike’s car when he showed up with her coffee (her savior). She was very grateful for Mike being with her on this trip. It was absolutely insane that he was even willing to come. She knew she wasn’t in her right state of mind, but she just had to get answers. 

Even if she didn’t like the answers she got. 

Now they were onto their next problem: a city with millions of people, looking for one person who might’ve been here eighteen years ago, but could be anywhere else now. 

A needle in a haystack. 

El almost didn’t know where to even start, until… “The adoption agency,” El said. “We can ask to see my files.”

“Do you know which adoption agency? There’s gotta be hundreds or thousands of them,” Mike told her. 

El reached into her bag, quickly pulling out the papers of her adoption and scanning them. “Children of New York Adoption Agency.”

“Okay, let’s go then,” Mike started the car and began to follow El’s directions that she was reading from her phone.

It didn’t take long to find, although they had a few minor bumps trying to find their way around one-way streets and large amounts of traffic. Luckily, Mike is a good driver, and cool under pressure, so they didn’t get lost or overly frustrated. 

The agency was in a small building in Manhattan, on the ninth floor. They got on the elevator and went to the correct floor, before stepping into an office area where a receptionist greeted them.

“Hi, what can I do for you?” she asked. El could see judgement in her eyes. She probably thought that she and Mike were here to adopt a child, and that they were too young to do so. Although true, El didn’t like the look the woman was giving her. 

“I was adopted through this agency and I would like to get any information I can about my birthparents,” El told her. 

“Um…” the woman hesitated, thrown off by El’s inquiry. “Give me just one second.” The woman disappeared behind a closed door, leaving them alone in the waiting area of the office. 

It wasn’t even a minute later when she returned with a man who appeared to be in his late 50s. 

“Hi, Miss…?” he began.

“El Hopper…. Well, Jane Hopper, technically,” El supplied. 

“Ah, well, Miss Hopper, we normally don’t give out information about people’s birth parents. I’m very sorry,” the man said. 

“Please, sir. I have the proper identification to show you I am who I say I am, and I just want to be at peace with this,” El pleaded.

“I’m sorry, but—“ the man said again.

“You do have the records, don’t you?” Mike spoke up, interrupting him.

“Well, yes but—“ 

“So you can show them to us,” Mike said. 

The man sighed and looked at both of their accusing faces, before giving in. “Okay, um, follow me.”

The two teens followed the man down a hallway, where he eventually came to a door on the right and went inside. 

They took a seat in the chairs in front of his desk as he began to rifle through a cabinet beside the desk.

“I have all the records of adoptions taking place back the last thirty years. We don’t normally do this, but I guess it couldn’t hurt… as long as you don’t tell anyone,” he looked up at them for a moment. 

“Don’t worry. We’ve gone rogue too,” Mike smiled. 

The man nodded, then pulled out a file, opening it. 

“So, I have the certificate of adoption, which only gives the mother’s name. I’m sure you have a copy of this?” he asked. 

“Yes,” El answered. 

“So what you’re looking for is this form,” the man passed the paper towards El. “It was filled out by your mother at the time of putting you up for adoption. It has much more information regarding her situation.”

El looked through the pages, taking in every detail. Mike was looking too. El didn’t mind.

Her mother listed her address at the time, an apartment in Brooklyn. She lived with her husband, who was not El’s father. He was a man named Dr. Martin Brenner. 

Reason for putting the child up for adoption: insufficient funds. That didn’t make any sense. If her stepfather was a doctor, wouldn’t they have been well off?

Then El saw something that sent a wave of sadness fall over her. 

Father of the child: Andrew Rich (deceased).

El stood up, feeling nauseous all of the sudden. 

“I’m sorry, I have to go,” she said and exited the room. 

She heard Mike thank the man, as she ran out. She knew he would be behind her in seconds. 

And he was, wrapping his arms around her as she began to cry. 

……..

El spent her entire life in the dark. She didn’t realize that beyond her own secrets she held from the world, the world was hiding secrets from her too. And now, she was being torn apart by her own unknown past, taking each and every piece of her and breaking it in half over and over again until there was nothing left. 

Her father was dead. 

He was dead, and with that, half of the information she wanted to know was gone… because he was gone. 

If she could find her mother, maybe she could get answers. She had an address now. No guarantees that her mother still lived there, but it was the only connection to her mother that she had left. 

Mike had let her cry for a long time, eventually walking her back out to the car, where she could break down without being watched. She cherished the moment to herself. She was able to break for a moment, and what was so wrong about that? Nothing. Everyone breaks every once in a while. 

When she was calmed back down, she was determined to find out exactly what happened. She told Mike the address for her mother’s Brooklyn apartment, and they drove off. 

The building didn’t look old or dingy. In fact, El would guess that it was probably brand new when her mother had moved in. She walked up to numbered mailboxes in the lobby of the building, trying to see the names of the tenants. 

None of them said Ives, but then again, her mother had gotten married to a man.

Martin Brenner. 

El’s eyes caught the last name, Brenner, on the twelfth floor. Apartment 12B. 

She ran to the elevator, about to get on it when she realized that she needed a key to get up to the twelfth floor. 

“Shit,” she muttered. 

She took in her surroundings, trying find some way to get up there, when her eyes caught a little set of buttons with a speaker for each apartment. El went over and pressed the button for 12B.

A minute later, an annoyed voice came through the speaker. “Hello?”

“Um, hi, I’m looking for a Dr. Brenner?” El asked. 

“Who’s speaking?” the voice said. 

El thought for a moment, should she tell him who she was? “My name is El… Ives,” she replied hesitantly. “I… am here to talk to you about Terry Ives?”

There was a brief silence, then the man said, “I’ll buzz you up.”

El went to the elevator that was now open, Mike following her closely, and pressed the button for the twelfth floor. 

……..

Hopper was still so angry with El that he had already left her about twenty texts and ten voicemails. He was getting worried about her. He knew he’d made a mistake by not being open with her about the adoption, but why would she do this to him? 

He couldn’t really do much at work. He was far too distracted. About halfway through the day, Flo came in and told him to go home and have Callahan do some of the extra work. 

Hopper couldn’t help but agree. This was just too much for him right now. His baby girl had practically run away. He’d worked far too hard to keep her safe for her to just disappear like this.

Back at his house, Hopper found Joyce, Will, and Max talking. 

“Hey, what are you doing back already?” Joyce asked when she saw him.

“Couldn’t focus. Too worried about El,” he answered, sitting down at the table. 

“I’m sure she’s fine,” Joyce attempted to comfort him. 

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. 

Joyce walked over to the front door, opening it. 

On the other side was a woman, holding the hand of a young blonde girl. 

“Do you know where my son is?” the woman asked with accusation in her eyes. 

“I’m sorry?” Joyce replied, confused. 

“My son, Mike, has been missing since yesterday morning when he told me he was leaving for school. He never even checked in at school, but apparently he’s been spending a lot of time with your daughter,” the woman said fiercely. 

“We don’t know where they are,” Joyce told her. 

“So they are together then?” Karen Wheeler let herself into the Hopper household, closing the door behind her.

“Yes,” Will answered from behind Joyce. “El left a note saying she wasn’t alone.”

Karen huffed her annoyance. “I knew it. He’s off sleeping with her or something. When I get my hands on him, I’m going to—“

“Do nothing,” Hopper interrupted. “As far as we know, it was my daughter who came up with this little idea. Your son likely got involved because they’ve become good friends.”

“They’re together,” Max interjected. “At least, I think they are… like dating or whatever. El’s a private person, but she’s not hard to read.”

“Well, still I’m very sorry for my son’s actions. He’s always been a troublemaker,” Karen rolled her eyes. 

Will and Max shared a look. That didn’t sound like Mike at all. 

Joyce didn’t seem to buy it either, and said, “Well, we’ll let you know if we hear from them.” 

Joyce began to usher Mike’s mother out of her house. 

“What a bitch,” Max whispered to Will.

“Right?” Will replied. 

Hopper’s phone began to ring then, and he pulled it out of his pocket. 

“It’s El,” he said, then answered, “Hello?”

“Dad, I’m so sorry.”

……..

Dr. Brenner led El and Mike into his apartment, which was huge. 

“So, I’m assuming you are Terry’s daughter. You do, after all, look just like her,” Brenner said, sitting down on his couch and gesturing that they should do the same. He had white hair, and appeared to be in his 50s.

“Yes, um, I was hoping to find her… do you know where she is?” El asked. 

“I’m very sorry to be the one to tell you this, but…. your mother passed away some years ago…. Killed herself, I’m afraid,” Brenner told her. 

El reached for Mike’s hand, happy for his presence. “What happened? I mean…. Do you know why she gave me up, and what happened to my father?” 

“Your father was hit by a bus shortly after he and your mother relocated here to the city. I met your mother a few months after. She was struggling to take care of you on her own, so I gave her some money. A few months later, we started seeing each other, and soon after got married. Your mother’s mental health was… shaky, at best. I would come home from work to find her holding you and crying. It got so bad, we decided that she couldn’t be trusted to be alone with you, so… we put you up for adoption.”

Brenner took a sip of the drink he had sitting on the coffee table. 

El had tears in her eyes, again. “When did she… die?” she asked.

“About a year later,” Brenner answered. “Found her in the bathtub. Her wrists…” he gestured at his own wrists, making a cutting motion. 

El put a hand over her mouth in an attempt to keep herself under control. 

“I’m sorry that you had to suffer for her problems,” Brenner said. 

El couldn’t speak, so Mike did instead. “Thank you for your time,” he told Brenner. 

They stood and Mike led El back to the elevator, and for the second time that day, she completely fell apart in his arms.

A long time later, when they were back in Mike’s car, El picked up her phone for the first time that day.

“Shit,” she said. “Dad’s been calling me.”

El pressed on her father’s contact, and the phone began to ring. 

“Hello?” she heard her father’s voice.

“Dad, I’m so sorry.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and thank you to everyone who waited over two months for me to update this. Y'all are amazing! Hiatus has officially been lifted! 
> 
> Speaking of new updates, if you like Harry Potter, keep an eye out for a new fic from yours truly, coming very very soon. :)


	6. Aunt Becky and the Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike and El find Becky and learn that what they know isn't entirely the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS is the chapter that I have been waiting to write for AGES. THIS is the chapter that brought this fic into existence, and I am so excited for y'all to finally read it!! 
> 
> Warning: some discussion of suicide, so if that triggers you, don't read
> 
> ALSO warning..... don't hate me after this one, okay?

“Dad, I’m so sorry.”

Hopper’s heart broke at hearing his defeated daughter sniffling on the other end of the phone call.

“No, honey, it’s okay… where are you?” he asked. 

“I don’t want to say,” she mumbled. “You’ll be mad at me.”

“No, okay, I promise I won’t get mad… Just tell me where you are,” Hopper pleaded. 

“Okay… I’m in New York,” El finally revealed. 

“What?! New York?!” he yelled. 

Will and Max shared a confused look. Joyce reached for her husband’s arm.

“I know, I know. It was stupid, but I tried to find my birthparents. They’re dead. Both of them. I’m so stupid,” El cried.

“Oh, Ellie, no. Don’t cry. You’re not stupid.” Hopper turned to Joyce and Will and whispered, “She went to find her parents, but they both died.”

“No, I am. I mean, I left the only real family I have to search for some kind of biological family that isn’t even there anymore. I just wanted to meet someone who is actually related to me,” she sniffled. 

“Actually…” Hopper sighed. He didn’t want her to be gone for any longer, but he didn’t want anymore secrets. “Actually I do know where you have an alive relative… Your aunt. Her name is Becky Ives, and she lives in Chicago. Please, just…. Be safe. Be careful. And come home as soon as you’re done, okay?”

“Okay, I will. Thank you, Dad. I love you,” El said. 

“I love you too. I’ll text you the address…. Oh, and tell Mike he needs to call his mother,” Hopper added. 

“…You aren’t mad about… Mike?” El asked hesitantly.

“No,” Hopper couldn’t be mad at her. Not right now. 

“I’ll see you soon,” she said. 

“Bye El,” Hopper replied, hanging up.

……..

“We’re going to Chicago,” El told Mike right after she hung up the phone. 

“What?” Mike looked at her in confusion.

“My dad knows a relative I have there. My aunt Becky. We have to go see her,” El explained. 

“El… are you sure we should be going there? It’ll add a whole other day to our trip and we won’t learn anything new. What’s the point? We should just go home…. I just don’t want you to be upset anymore,” Mike said. 

“We’re going,” El looked at him pointedly. “Drive the damn car.”

Mike turned the key in the ignition and began to drive back through the streets of the city, headed back the direction they came. He still didn’t like this whole Chicago plan. It didn’t make any sense. Her parents were both dead. There was nothing she could do about that. He didn’t want to be an asshole, but honestly, what was the benefit in doing this again?

“El,” he started again. 

“Dad says you need to call your mom, by the way,” El said coldly. 

“Shit,” Mike grabbed his phone out of his pocket.

After Mike had called his mother, El was quiet. Too quiet. Mike didn’t think what he’d said about not going was out of line, but El was acting as if this was life or death. 

The next time she spoke to him was when they reached Ohio. “I’m tired. Pull into the next motel you see,” she told him.

He did as he was told, stopping the car at some off brand motel that he hoped wouldn’t be too disgusting. He went to get out of the car when El grabbed his arm. 

“Make sure you get a double,” she said, then released her grasp on him.

“But it’ll cost more,” Mike reasoned.

“I don’t care. You have the money,” El replied, not looking at him.

He stood, and walked into the office, trying to not feel so rejected by El’s sudden coldness towards him.

Once he’d gotten his key and paid for the room, the two teens grabbed their bags again and went into their room.

They didn’t speak as they took their turns in the bathroom, getting ready for bed. 

After it appeared that El was not going to be the one to speak up first, Mike couldn’t take the silence anymore. 

“Okay, that’s enough El. I can’t take this anymore. You need to tell me whats going on in your head because it is driving me crazy not being able to talk to you right now. I’m sorry about what I said earlier. Just help me to understand,” he said. 

El sat up out of her bed, looking at him for a minute. “Okay…” she spoke quietly. “I just want to meet someone who has the same blood as me, someone who has my hair or my nose or my eyes. Do you know what it’s like to go your whole life without seeing a single person out there that looks like you? Will has his mom’s eyes. Max has her mom’s hair. I have nothing…. I know… I know it’s so stupid, but… I just want to meet her. Maybe she has pictures of my mom. Maybe even of my dad too.”

Mike nodded. “It’s not stupid…. I’m the one who’s stupid. I never thought of it like that, I guess. I’m sorry, El.”

El smiled, “It’s okay.” 

“Do you think you’ll feel better after we see her? Like, do you think you’ll be able to… move on?” Mike asked. 

“I hope so,” El answered. “And Mike, I know I haven’t been the easiest to deal with these last few days, so I’m sorry for being crazy and emotional.”

“I would do anything for you, El. You know I would,” Mike whispered.

El smiled, and stood up from her bed, taking the three small steps forward to Mike, and lacing her fingers into his. 

“Thank you,” she said quietly. Her face was only inches from his now, he could smell her perfume. 

Looking directly into El’s eyes, Mike knew what was about to happen. He couldn’t believe that he’d waited to kiss her for this long, especially now that she was right here in front of him. She was so close to him, giving him permission. 

Kiss her, his self-conscious told him. And for the first time ever, Mike kissed El, and it was 100% not a dream. 

It started off soft and warm, everything anyone ever wants in a first kiss. Then it slowly became more fervent and heated. El’s hands were no longer in his, her arms having snaked around his neck. Mike’s hands held her close to him.

They’d both been holding this back for so long, and now they couldn’t take anymore. It was like kissing was the answer to all their problems. 

A few minutes later, the kissing had dwindled down and they fell asleep cuddled up together in Mike’s bed, El’s bed laying vacant. 

……..

El woke up to the sunshine creeping through the motel window. It was so peaceful and serene that she almost fell back asleep, but then something shifted underneath her and El remembered that she wasn’t in bed alone. She was lying half on top of Mike as he slept. He moved for a moment, but then returned to his deep sleep. El found that watching him sleep was even more peaceful that the sunshine. 

But unfortunately, El knew they needed to get moving. It was already mid-morning, and if they wanted to see Becky and make it back to Hawkins tonight, they needed to wake up. 

“Mike,” she whispered, shaking him gently.

“Hm?” he mumbled sleepily, not even bothering to open his eyes. 

“Mike, wake up. We have to get back on the road,” El said, reluctantly untangling herself from him. 

Mike woke up then, missing El’s warmth, and they both got ready for the day.

Mike figured they were about six hours away from Chicago, so they would get there in the afternoon.

As they drove down the highways, traffic was unusually light, but it was also Sunday, and most people like to spend their Sundays at home. 

They were back in Indiana by noon, although just passing through for now, but El still had a small desire to just go home. They were so close. Mike could take one exit instead of another and they could be back in Hawkins in no time. 

But that would be counterproductive. El needed to know as much about her family as possible. She needed to close this chapter of her life. She couldn’t just abandon it before it was over. 

She was also getting extremely tired of all the driving. The only thing keeping her going right now was… Mike. 

He was her anchor that kept her from slipping away. She had been so angry that he’d suggested they come home, and she knew that it was stupid of her to freeze him out like that. But she is stubborn, always has been. She’s spent far too much time with Hopper. 

Mike held El’s hand the entire way to Chicago, smiling at her whenever he had the chance. El couldn’t believe that they’d actually kissed last night. They’d made out! El Hopper made out with a boy! It made her blush to think about. This was far more serious than any of her previous crushes. Mike wasn’t her first ever kiss, but he was her first ever kiss that really mattered. 

Finally, after hours and hours on the road, they made it to Chicago. They pulled into the driveway of the address that Hopper had texted. It was a cute little suburban home with a white picket fence around it. It was almost a cliché white American home. 

El and Mike got out of the car, and began to walk up to the porch. 

“Wonder if my dad told her we were coming,” El said.

“Guess we’ll find out,” Mike replied, holding onto El’s hand as she took the other and knocked on the door.

A minute or so later, a woman in her forties appeared. She had dark brown, curly hair and even darker brown eyes. El stared for a moment. The resemblance was enough to take her breath away.

“El?” the woman asked.

El nodded. 

“I’m your aunt Becky,” the woman said. She stepped out of the house to hug El. 

“It’s nice to meet you,” El replied, then gestured to Mike. “This is my boyfriend, Mike.”

El watched as Mike’s eyebrows rose in amusement at El introducing him as her boyfriend. 

“It’s nice to meet you, Mike,” Becky shook his hand. “Well, come on in you two. I’m sure we have a lot to talk about… Would you like coffee?”

“Sure that’d be great,” El answered as they stepped into the living room. 

“Yeah, definitely,” Mike agreed. 

“Okay, wait right here and I’ll be back in a sec,” Becky told them.

They sat on the couch, El looking around the room, hoping to see a picture of her mother somewhere. All she saw were pictures of Becky and someone who appeared to be her husband and their son. 

“That’s Charlie,” Becky said when she returned and saw her staring at a photograph. “He’s ten now.”  
“I have a cousin?” El asked. 

“Yep. I would’ve liked to have had more, but the doctor said I couldn’t have anymore after Charlie… So, hun, your dad tells me you’ve been struggling with learning about being adopted.”

El nodded. 

“Well, I completely understand that, especially finding out this late in life. So whatever you need, I’m here,” Becky offered. 

El sipped on her coffee, “Well, do you have pictures? Of my parents?”

“Oh! Yes, of course, let me see here,” Becky began rummaging through a stack of books for a moment before pulling out a worn photo album and handing it to El.

El opened it cautiously and the first picture was her mother. Her hair was almost exactly the same as El’s, but it was longer. She had both her mother’s eyes and hair, and it made El want to cry. 

She began to flip through the album, staring at each picture of her mother, noticing all the similarities and even the differences. Eventually, she came across a picture of her mother with a man. Immediately, El recognized the nose as her own and she didn’t even need verification to know that this was her father. 

They looked so in love that El actually did begin to cry. 

“You can pick some of those out and keep them,” Becky told her. “I have plenty.”

“Thank you,” El said, already looking through again for some of her favorites.

A little while later, El had finished picking her photos and finally plucked up the courage to ask the questions she knew she needed the answers to. 

“Becky, what were my parents like? I spoke to my mother’s husband in New York, but we didn’t really get to talk much about what they were like,” El told her.

“You spoke to Brenner?” Becky asked, suddenly alert with anger in her eyes. 

“Yes,” El answered hesitantly.

“Don’t believe a damn word that son of a bitch said to you! He probably lied to you about how they both died, making himself look like the knight in shining armor that came and rescued your heartbroken mother when he’s the reason your father is dead!” Becky shouted. 

“Wait what?!” Mike spoke up. 

“What are you talking about?” El asked, trying to remain calm.

“Your parents decided to move to New York because it was your mother’s dream to live there. They moved right after you were born and then they met Brenner. He manipulated them, bankrupted them, and left them no choice but to fall right into his ‘kind’ arms. They had to move in with him so that he could support all of you. One week after they moved in, Andrew was found dead in the street. Brenner says he was hit by a bus, but I know that he killed him. Maybe it was even his own henchmen on that bus that hit him. Your mother was so afraid of him hurting you that she did everything he said. He forced her to marry him, forced her to go on drugs, and be a part of his plans. She gave you up because she knew that someday he would hurt and manipulate you too.”

By the end of Becky’s rant, El could barely breath, but she still found the energy to ask, “Is that why she killed herself?”

“I know my sister, and my sister was far too strong to kill herself. I think that she was close to getting away from him, and he found out and killed her. I would bet my entire bank account that her wrists were slashed after she was already dead,” Becky finished. 

……..

Mike ran after El, who had quickly excused herself from Becky’s house, thanking her for telling her everything. Mike knew that this was bad. So bad. El was going to be worse off for coming here.

“El!” he yelled as he followed her. 

“Mike, please… just take me home,” El didn’t cry. She looked defeated. This was worse than tears. She had completely given up. 

Mike nodded, “Okay.”

They got back into the car for the final leg of their journey. They would be back in Hawkins in just a few hours, and Mike hoped that somewhere along the way, El would talk to him.

But she didn’t. For the whole ride, El sat in the passenger seat with her arms held across her chest, holding herself together. 

It was getting dark when they passed the sign welcoming them back home. 

Mike parked the car in front of El’s house, hoping she would talk, but instead, she simply got out and went to the trunk of the car to get her bag. 

Mike got out too. “Wait, El,” he said, and then he stopped. What could he say to make this any better? “El, it’ll… it’ll be okay. I’m here for you… whenever you want to talk.”

El looked at him for a half of a second before she burst into tears. Mike sprang forward, hugging her tightly to his chest. 

“That horrible man ruined my life!” she cried. “He killed them!”

“El, I know. I know. But he didn’t ruin your life, you still ended up with a family that loves you more than anything, and isn’t that what’s important right now?” Mike said. El pushed him away.

“No, Mike, you don’t understand! I should be living in New York with my parents right now! But they’re both dead, and it’s all his fault!” El shouted. 

“Don’t you care about Hopper and Joyce, the parents that chose you and that have taken care of you just as well as your biological parents could have?” Mike asked. 

“Of course I do, but that’s beside the point!” El yelled. 

“No, it’s not, El. That is the whole point! Hopper and Joyce took you in and all you care about is the ones that are dead! I mean, you wouldn’t have had to live in this shithole of a town and you never would’ve met me and you want that!” Mike knew he was getting angry, and that he should step back, but he couldn’t stand to hear El talk like this. 

“Don’t make this about you, you selfish asshole!” El said. 

Mike stared at her for a minute before finally replying.

“I know you’re upset, and you should be, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t take for granted everything you have in life! You have two parents that love you already! You don’t know what it’s like to go your whole life feeling unwanted! Did you know that my parents’ marriage is a sham?! Did you know that I can’t stand to be anywhere near them because they treat me like I’m worthless?! They say they want me around, but I know they don’t! You have everything I’ve ever wanted! And you can’t seem to see how lucky you are! Then, after everything I did FOR YOU this weekend, you call me the selfish asshole?!”

It was obvious that this was all new information to El, as she stared back at him unable to form words. Mike could see the regret on her face, but he couldn’t bear to be there with her any longer. 

Mike went to get back into the car, stopping at last second and saying, “I think you’re the one that’s selfish.” 

He drove off, leaving El standing out in the dark driveway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oooof, I know that Mike and El's fight is probably going to upset my mileven shippers, but don't worry y'all. We aren't done yet. This might've been the most depressing and heartbreaking chapter of this story, but BOY was that fun to write. Writing that fight at the end, I felt like I was on fire. So excited to hear what you all think! Leave me comments! They are my fuel!


	7. i love you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mike and El aren't talking, but that doesn't mean their story is over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, wow, wow, I actually wrote this in like... what?... 3 days? 
> 
> You'll find out why I couldn't wait to write this one. 
> 
> Also, at the end of this chapter is a scene that I hope fills everyone's mileven hearts. It has a mix of cliché and originality, which is pretty common in romcoms.
> 
> Quick warning though, Mike gets a little risky with those sentence enhancers at some point this chapter. (One F bomb)

Mike pushed the food on his lunch tray around with his fork, not even bothering to take any bites. He didn’t have an appetite. 

It had been a month.

A whole month since he’d spoken to El…. and he was miserable. He hated himself for the way he left things with her, but he couldn’t bring himself to apologize… especially when things at home were even worse after his weekend getaway with El. She still had a family that loved her, and Mike…. well, he really didn’t. 

He hated that he was jealous. He hated being that guy. He also hated himself for ignoring the texts she kept sending. One each day. Each day more desperate to talk than the last. 

Mike pulled out his phone, reading the message El had sent him this morning.

El: mike, please, we need to talk… I’m tired of fighting

Mike wanted to forgive her for her selfishness. He really, really wanted to. But now he was embarrassed too. He was embarrassed that she now knew everything wrong with his life. He was embarrassed that he had given her everything, and she’d kept asking more of him. There was really nothing left… or at least, that’s how it felt. 

“Would it be so bad if you talked to her?” Lucas interrupted his self-depreciating thoughts. 

“Yeah, man, why don’t you just talk to her?” Dustin agreed. 

Dustin and Lucas. Mike was grateful for them. They’d been close when they were kids, but when Mike became the student body president and earned his popularity, they’d grown apart, but Mike was tired of pretending he was someone he wasn’t. He was just glad that Dustin and Lucas weren’t the type to hold a grudge. 

Mike had confided everything that had happened with El to them. They had been supportive, and gave him advice. Sometimes they would take Mike out to go to the arcade so he didn’t have to stay at home with his mother, who had become unbearable. 

“Because,” Mike said. “She deserves so much better than me. I’m an idiot and she’s probably just texting me so that she can tell me off for being an asshole.”

“She is not, she looks just as miserable as you do,” Lucas gestured to El across the cafeteria, but Mike didn’t look her direction. He couldn’t bear it. 

“Seriously, Mike, this whole ‘I’m pathetic and depressed’ vibe you’ve got going right now is not healthy,” Dustin added. 

Mike rolled his eyes and went back to playing with his food. 

This couldn’t be any worse.

……..

This couldn’t be any worse.

That’s what El thought every time she noticed Mike in the halls or in class or in the cafeteria. She felt horrible regret for the way she’d treated him that night, and the only way she was going to be able to rightfully apologize was in person… but Mike wouldn’t even answer her texts.

She wanted to tell him how wrong she was. How he wasn’t an asshole. How she’d just been upset, but she still shouldn’t have taken it out on him. How she really, really, really missed him and his hugs. How she would do just about anything to make him understand. 

El had come to terms with the fact that she was adopted. She’d come to terms with the fact that her parents had been murdered by one evil man. Mike was the only thing she cared about anymore. 

He had been right. He had been so right. Hopper and Joyce and Will, they all loved her as if they were her blood. She didn’t need biological parents to be happy. Mike didn’t have that, and she felt horrible that she had never even bothered to ask about his parents or sisters. She had been the selfish one. 

How was Mike going to forgive her, when she couldn’t even forgive herself?

“Hey, Space Cadet,” Max’s voice cut into El’s thoughts as she stared at Mike from across the cafeteria. 

“What, sorry,” El mumbled, turning her attention back to her friend.

“You’re doing it again…. The staring.. its kinda weird and stalkery, Ellie,” Max told her, shoving a french fry into her mouth.

“He still hasn’t texted back, huh?” Will said from beside her.

“No,” El answered. “He hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you, El. He’s practically in love with you,” Max reasoned. 

El felt her heart physically begin to ache at the word “love.” Is this what love felt like?

“He’s not… he can’t stand to be anywhere near me,” El replied grouchily.

“I just don’t understand why you won’t just walk over there and demand to talk to him,” Will said. 

“I can’t do that! He’s sitting with his friends, and I don’t want to be publicly humiliated when he rejects me,” El told him.

“Okay, then you’re not ready to talk to him then,” Will replied. 

“What do you mean?” El asked, frowning.

“If you don’t have something so perfect to say to him that he couldn’t ignore you any longer, then you shouldn’t talk to him yet. When you have something to say, something real to say, it has to be heartfelt and moving. You can’t just wing it. I’ll be honest with you, El. You did screw up, but so did he, and he regrets what he said just as much as you regret what you said.”

“Will’s right,” Max chimed in, “I mean, you can’t just go over there and word vomit all over him, like I know you would. But I also think that whenever you do figure out what to say to him, you’ve still got a shot at a relationship with him. He’s clearly depressed without you.”

“Just think about it,” Will patted El on her shoulder. 

Suddenly, the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.

As El stood, she knew that they were right. She had to make some sort of gesture that was real and genuine. But first, she had to figure out what that gesture was. 

……..

Mike crept through the basement door, hoping to God that his mother wouldn’t hear him and would be blissfully asleep. He began to climb the stairs, wanting to make it to his bedroom, where he could easily get into his pajamas and pretend like he hadn’t skipped out on dinner and stayed out until 1am on a school night. 

But, as his unfortunate luck had lately been taunting him, his mother was not asleep. She was waiting for him in the living room. It was in direct view of the stairs, and he knew that he was dead as his mother’s cold eyes stared into his own. 

“Michael, I have told you a thousand times. When I say be home for dinner, I mean it. You are grounded. You are to go straight to school and straight back home, no detours, no friends, no anything,” his mother practically hissed. 

Mike rolled his eyes. She couldn’t control him. She had no power over him. And he had no respect for her. 

She didn’t deserve it. 

“Do NOT roll your eyes at me, I mean it… What do you think you’re special or something? Do you think you can just ignore me and your father?” 

Mike huffed at the mention of his father. 

“My father hasn’t spoken to me in over a month. I don’t give a shit what he says. Clearly I’m not the kind of son he wanted,” Mike spat.

“Michael! Language! Maybe if you didn’t act out, your father would speak to you again,” his mother told him angrily.

“You know what? I haven’t been acting out. Not really. Yeah, sure, I’ve been late for curfew a few times, and yeah, I did take a little weekend trip with my girlfriend, but I don’t drink or do drugs, I get good grades and I’m the student body president. Any other family would fucking love to have me, but you and dad don’t seem to give a shit! And so, guess what? I don’t give a shit either, so we can skip all the formalities and pretend like I don’t even exist.” 

His mother didn’t even have the decency to deny it. 

Mike stared hard into her dark eyes, watching the last mask of fake motherhood come off of his mother. She couldn’t fool him anymore. 

He walked past her, heading for the stairs. 

“Michael,” she whispered. 

Mike looked back at her, finding her eyes once again. He saw something in her eyes. She was hurt by what he’d said, but then again, he was hurt by the way she treated him for a long time. 

“I put 100% into every person I love,” Mike whispered, tears building in his eyes. “…and I’m tired of not getting anything in return.”

Mike turned back up the stairs, and went into his bedroom, letting the tears spill over. 

……..

Dear Mike,

This is the hardest letter I’ve ever had to write. I can’t believe how selfish I was and how horribly I treated you. If there was one thing I would do differently, it’s listen to you because my feelings for you are

“Shit,” El mumbled as she crumpled the letter. This was the fourth one she wrote, and the fourth she’d crumpled up.

“You can’t do it in a letter,” Will said from the bean bag on El’s bedroom floor.

“I know,” El admitted. “I thought maybe writing him a letter would clear my thoughts a little.”

“What’s the use of being a journalist if you can’t even use that superpower, am I right?” Will joked. 

“Huh, yeah,” El smiled a little. 

“Listen to your heart, Ellie. That’s the only way your going to figure out what to say to him,” Will told her. 

“Wow, Will. I had no idea you were such a romantic,” El giggled. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I just like seeing you happy…” Will said. 

They were both quiet for a moment.

“Maybe you could help me… like be my therapist, Will. Lord knows I probably need one,” El suggested. 

Will looked skeptical. 

“Oh come on,” El pleaded. “You’re the smartest and you give the best advice. Please, Mr. Therapist?” 

“Fine,” Will rolled his eyes and sat up. 

El laid back on the bed as if she were actually in therapy and Will laughed. 

“Okay, so… when you think about Mike what do you feel?” Will began.

“Happy…. And sad,” El admitted. 

“Why?”

“Happy because that’s how he makes me feel when I’m with him…. Sad because I made a huge mistake.”

“What do you think you did wrong?” Will asked.

“I treated him like garbage. Took advantage of him… I didn’t take his feelings into account,” El said quietly.

“Why?”

“Because I was only thinking about myself. I.. when we first met, I never really thought about making it past the tutoring thing. I’m not experienced in relationships.”

“Mike was the one who came to you for tutoring right?” Will asked. 

“Yeah… I always thought it was really brave. I.... Oh my god,” El sat up.

“What is it?”

“Will, you’re a lifesaver, now please, get out of my room,” El said, gesturing Will out. 

……..

El’s knee bounced under the lunch table as she tried to focus on her food, instead of what she was building up courage to do. Lunch was going to end in fifteen minutes. That was fifteen minutes until her chance was lost for another day. She glanced at Mike, but only for a moment. She didn’t want to freak herself out. 

Max and Will both seemed to sense that El was in an even deeper thought than usual, as they both kept quiet, occasionally looking at her with curious eyes. 

El stared at her plate of food for a little while longer. 

Ten minutes left. 

Five. 

El stood up. 

“What is she doing?” she heard Max ask Will.

She didn’t hear if Will answered. Her eyes were on Mike, who’s own eyes widened as he saw her approaching. He stood up, almost as if fate was going to give El a chance. 

She looked into his dark brown eyes, closer than she’d been to him in weeks. 

He looked almost scared, but there was something in his eyes that told her to keep going. 

And she did. She stopped five feet away from him.

“I love you,” she said loudly. The students in the cafeteria noticed the unusual display and got quiet. 

“I love you. I love you so much, I don’t know what to do with all of it. I made a huge mistake with you. The biggest mistake of my life. You were right…. Love isn’t about blood, it’s about the people you choose to have in your life. The people that really matter,” El glanced back at Will and Max, who were both staring with wide open mouths.

El continued, “I’ve been selfish. I took advantage of your kindness, and I know that it was wrong. I regret everything I put you through. And I forgive you for yelling at me, and calling me selfish, and ignoring my texts. I forgive you because I deserved it. I forgive you because neither one of us is perfect. I forgive you because I love you…”

Mike’s eyes were wide and his mouth was open in shock, but El wasn’t finished yet. 

“You were the first person I’ve ever felt any real romantic feelings for. I was a shitty girlfriend. And, I am really inexperienced when it comes to this relationship stuff…. I helped you with your English grade… and I… I tutored you. But now… now I think I’m the one that needs a tutor… A relationship tutor. And I can’t think of anyone in the world I would rather have as a relationship tutor… than you. Because I love you… and somewhere deep down…. I think you love me too.”

Everyone in the room seemed to hold their breath.

“Do you?” El asked.

And in the most romantic moment of El’s life, Mike took the few steps forward to reach her. 

And right there, in the middle of the cafeteria, in front of the entire school, Mike kissed her. 

And this kiss… this kiss was different than their hasty make-out session in the motel. This kiss was so. much. better. 

Mike put all his love for El into the kiss, and El gave all her love in return. 

And as if this were a movie, and not real life, El vaguely heard clapping and cheering. 

She might’ve been imagining that part… but she could definitely hear Max and Will. The rest was white noise, and besides…

She had much more important things on her mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all, if this were a movie, this is where I would technically end it, BUT... because it is not a movie and it is fanfiction, I can do whatever I want. And because I have, like, zeroooo self control, y'all are getting an epilogue.
> 
> BUT to make it a little more interesting and fun, I thought it would be cool if YOU helped me out. Comment below how long the time jump should be!!
> 
> I've gone back and forth between a short time jump and a very large time jump, so you guys are gonna pick so I don't have to. 
> 
> Please, comment below!!


	8. Happy (Epilogue)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snapshots of Mike and El's life together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe that I'm finally finishing this! It's been a wild ride for the last few months, and I really appreciate all of your support for this story. A lot of you wanted a lot of different things for the epilogue, so of course, I couldn't choose just one thing. So I went with snapshots of their life. And they really are snapshots, short little conversations here and there. There's only one storyline in this final chapter that really gets focused on for more than one snapshot, but the chapter ended up being just as long, if not longer than my usual chapters. Again, thank you all, and I'll see you at the end!

May 2020

If Mike learned anything in his final year of high school, it’s that he loves El Hopper and nothing else in the world matters more to him than her. 

Over the course of the months of their relationship, starting from the point where El told him she loved him to the present time, had been like a fairy tale. Well, it wasn’t perfect. They sometimes fought, although never quite as badly as they had before. But the one thing that changed was that they always talked it out. No one went radio silent. They both agreed that if they were angry with each other, they needed to fix it before they went home for the night. 

Mike and El sort of became “that couple” that everyone talks about, especially after El’s grand gesture. Anytime they held hands walking down the hallway or Mike kissed her goodbye before they had to separate for class, there was always someone watching, talking about them. 

El became whole and happy again. She came to accept that her life wasn’t perfect, and her past didn’t define her. She found more appreciation for the people in her life. She wasn’t involved, but she knew that Becky was working on finding a way to prove Brenner’s guilt, and from what she could tell, the case was a good one. 

Mike was so in love with El, that he almost didn’t even hear his name being called because he was too busy thinking about her. 

“Michael Wheeler,” his principal said into the microphone. Mike broke out of his thoughts and stepped forward, shaking the man’s hand and taking his diploma. 

As he walked back to his seat, he saw El grinning brightly at him from her seat at the front. She was the salutatorian. He smiled back at her. 

“Now, I introduce to you, the graduates: Hawkins High School Class of 2020!”

Mike, along with the rest of his class threw his cap into the air.

After they were dismissed from the ceremony, it only took about ten seconds before El was in Mike’s arms. 

“We did it!” she yelled excitedly into his chest. “We graduated!”

“Yeah, we did!” Mike replied, leaning down to kiss her.

“Hey, now,” he heard a gruff voice come up behind him. “What’ve I told you about doing that in front of me?” Hopper said, putting his hand on Mike’s shoulder. 

“Sorry,” Mike mumbled, but he knew Hopper wasn’t mad. 

“Congratulations, kids,” he said, pulling them both into a hug. 

“Mike!” another voice said from a few feet away. Mike released himself from the hug to see his big sister, grinning at him. 

“Nancy! You came,” Mike exclaimed as he gave her a hug. “I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“I know. Sorry about that, little brother. But I couldn’t miss your big day,” she said. 

Mike saw that several feet behind Nancy, his mother was lingering. They’d barely spoken in months. He was surprised she’d even came. 

Nancy saw that he was looking at her, and she whispered, “She wants to make up, I think. Just let her talk. You don’t have to forgive her if you don’t want to.”

Mike simply nodded and stepped forward to his mother. El watched from afar as she posed for some pictures with Max and Will. 

“Hey… I didn’t think you’d come,” Mike said. 

“You’re my son. I couldn’t miss this….” His mother replied. There was a brief silence. “Mike, I made some mistakes raising you. I was wrong to treat you the way I did, and I know you probably won’t want anything to do with me ever again, but… I miss you. I want to be in your life. I want to be a real, good mother… if you’ll let me, that is…. I’m divorcing your father. I’m not going to blame him for my actions, but he was the reason I was such a bad mother for such a long time. I wasn’t happy. I’m sorry.”

Mike hesitated. He wanted her back. He really did. He just didn’t know if he could trust her. 

“Okay… but it’s going to take a while before I can really forgive you for everything,” Mike compromised. 

“I understand. Thank you, Mike,” his mother hugged him, and Mike somehow knew that in this moment, his life was headed in the right direction in every way. 

……..

October 2020

“Long distance sucks,” El whined into the phone. “I miss you too much.”

Max rolled her eyes as she sat watching El lying on her dorm bed, practically “dying” as she’d often put it, that Mike wasn’t at the same college as them.

“I miss you too,” Mike said through the phone.

“How are we supposed to do this for four years!” El yelled. 

This is the same conversation that Max had heard for nearly two months already, and she was going to be stuck hearing it everyday for the entire time she was at college with El.

“We’ll be okay, I promise. I’ll come visit you next weekend,” Mike replied. 

And they were okay. Sometimes they were better than others. Max, of course, being the best friend, got a front row seat to every twist and turn of their relationship during those four years of college. 

She was there for Mike and El’s huge fight towards the end of their sophomore year, and she was there for every visit that Mike came to surprise El. 

And best of all, Max was there when Mike came to her to get her to find out El’s ring size. 

She was there the day he proposed to El, halfway through their senior year of college, the homestretch. Then again, she was one of many who witnessed that particular event. Mike was a romantic at heart, so of course, he staged a beautiful proposal with their friends and family present. 

Max knew that they were meant to be together, like soulmates or some other shit that Max always told herself didn’t really exist. But it did. For them it did. 

And that’s why she endured being tortured with endless phone calls and El being annoyingly lovey-dovey. Because she knew. They were it. Endgame. Soulmates… whatever “it” was really. They were it. 

……..

November 2024

“We’re married,” El whispered, as she laid in their bed in their brand new two bedroom house. They were back in Hawkins. Mike was writing a fiction novel and El was a journalist for the Hawkins Post.

“Holy shit,” Mike agreed, turning to face her. 

“I like it,” El grinned. “When did we become… grown ups?” 

“Is that what we are?” Mike joked. “Cuz I still feel like a twelve year old, whose having the best dream of his life.” Mike kissed her. 

“Hm, well you’re my twelve year old… forever,” El giggled.

“Married, we have a house… you know what the next step is, right?” Mike wriggled his eyebrows, making El roll her eyes. 

“We’ve been married for like five minutes and you already want a baby,” El said. 

“Hey,” Mike raised his hands in defense. “I just said it was the next step, not that I want it to happen right this second.”

“Yeah, sure,” El grinned. 

“Could always practice, though,” Mike mumbled, causing El to throw a pillow into his face. 

They weren’t quite ready for a baby yet then, but it was less than a year later when they started trying to get pregnant. They had expected it to only take a few tries, but after a year of trying, Mike and El thought there might be something wrong. So they went to a fertility doctor, who informed them that they were perfectly capable, and that they should just keep trying.

But still, it was hard on them. Each and every negative crushed their spirits a little more. Maybe they weren’t meant to have children, El thought one night. And for a little while, they stopped paying attention to it, and just lived their lives. 

……..

March 2027

“The phone’s ringing,” Mike mumbled into his pillow. 

El groaned and sat up out of the bed, looking at her cell for the time: 6:02am. Meanwhile, her home phone was still ringing, and she quickly went to answer it in the living room. 

“Hello?” she said into the receiver. 

“Hey, El.. it’s Becky.”

“Oh, hey, I haven’t heard from you for a while… How are you?”

“I’m fantastic, do you want to know why?” Becky said excitedly.

“Um… sure?” El hesitated.

“We got him. Brenner. He’s going to prison. He’s been stashing incriminating evidence in a storage facility under a different name, but the PI found it. We got him, El. Your mom is finally going to get justice.”

“What?… After all this time?”

“I know… it’s crazy… but I just wanted to let you know. He’s going to be put on death row.”

“Oh my God, Becky. Thanks for telling me,” El said. 

“No problem, El. Hope you can get some peace.”

“Bye, Becky.”

El hung up the phone and held it to her chest for a moment. 

Then, as if El could somehow see her mother, she felt a sense of warmth rush over her. Her mother was at peace. And now, she was too. 

……..

May 2027

“El.”

El woke up with a start, realizing that she had fallen asleep in her office at work again. Her boss Jen, a woman who wasn’t easy to please but had taken a liking to El’s work, was standing in the doorway.

“Sorry,” El said. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I’m normally not this tired.”

“It’s okay. I just wanted to ask if you got that piece on the new shopping mall done,” Jen said.

“Oh, yeah. I finished it this morning,” El pulled out the draft and handed it to her. 

“Great, you sure you’re okay? We can skip lunch if you need to go home,” Jen suggested. Jen liked El a lot. So they often had lunch together in town. 

“No, I’m fine. I probably just need another shot of coffee,” El stood with her coffee cup and headed to the coffee machine. 

“Where would any of us be without coffee?” Jen joked, and left El to her work.

El managed to make it through the rest of the day without falling asleep at her desk. It was strange. She used to be completely fine with only one cup of coffee first thing in the morning, but lately she’s been so tired she’s been going back a second or third cup. El thought maybe she was reaching that point in adulthood that everyone told her about, where you start to feel older and tired. But she was only 25, and Mike was the same age with just as much energy as he’s always had. Maybe she was getting sick? She had felt nauseous that morning. 

El went home and curled up with her Mike, as they watched Netflix and ordered a pizza for dinner. 

“My editor called today,” Mike told her. “Said that my book is officially ready to be printed. One month from today, it’ll be published.”

“Mike, I’m so proud of you,” El smiled at him.

“I can’t believe it’s finally going to be out there in the world. I never thought I’d be a writer. Now, here I am, about to publish my first book and already brainstorming on the sequel,” Mike snuggled El closer. 

“I can’t wait to read it,” El said.

“You already have. I gave you every chapter to read before I gave it to my editor,” Mike laughed.

“Yeah, I know, but I can’t wait to read it again, once it’s in an actual book and not a stack of printer paper,” El told him.

They watched TV for a little while longer, when Mike noticed that El was nodding off. 

“Hey… you wanna go to bed? You look pretty tired,” he whispered.

El nodded, and started to get up, but Mike being Mike, quickly picked her up bridal style and carried her to their bedroom. He laid her down in the bed and kissed her forehead. 

“Get some sleep,” Mike told her as he went into the bathroom to get a shower. 

El fell asleep less than thirty seconds later, the soft sound of the shower running lulling her to sleep.

The next morning El woke up feeling horrible. She went to the bathroom and threw up a few times, before calling off from work. A little while later, another wave of nausea hit, this time El threw up so loudly that Mike woke up. 

“Hey, you okay?” he asked with concern when he opened the bathroom door. He kneeled down on the floor beside her, rubbing her back.

“Yeah, I think I’m just sick or something. I’m okay, you can go back to bed or go write or something. I’ll be fine,” El said, flushing the toilet and heading back to bed. She wasn’t planning on going anywhere. 

El fell back asleep quickly. Maybe she was just overworking herself, and this was her body’s way of telling her to slow down. 

........

El walked along the sidewalk leading to her mothers house. The sun was shining brightly and she smiled as she saw her mother waiting for her, wearing a white flowing dress. 

El hugged her mother, and her mother whispered, “I’m so proud of you.”

“For what?” El asked. 

“For making me a grandmother,” she answered.

“What are you talking about?” El replied, confused. 

“You’re having a baby, honey.”

……..

El woke up breathing heavily. She shook her head, still feeling the confusion of the dream. She’d only been back asleep for a couple hours, but El couldn’t believe how much better she felt. She wasn’t nauseous or tired. It was weird. 

El sat up, checking her phone for any texts. 

There was a text from Will, telling her that he hoped she felt better soon. Mike must have talked to him. 

Max had texted too, asking about doing a girls night soon so that she could get away from Lucas for one night. 

El was about to respond, when she remembered the dream.

She’d had plenty of dreams about her mother, and lots of them had been confusing, but this one… Why would her mother say that she was having a baby? Unless… no, she couldn’t be… could she?

El pulled up the calendar on her phone and started counting the days from her last period. She was almost two weeks late. Holy shit. 

El walked out of the bedroom and went to the kitchen, where she found a note from Mike, saying that he’d had to go to a meeting with his editor and that he’d be back in a couple hours. 

Mind reeling, El grabbed her phone again and called Max. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Max answered. 

“Hey, um.. You aren’t working today, are you?” El asked, biting her thumb nail nervously.

“No… aren’t you?” Max replied. 

“Uh, no. I took the day off. Wasn’t feeling well,” El said. “Can you do something for me?”

……..

“I can’t believe we’re doing this. I mean, I knew it would happen eventually, but still.. it’s crazy,” Max said from her spot sitting on the stool by El’s bathroom sink. 

“I might not be, Max. We don’t know yet,” El was sitting on the edge of the bathtub.

“Oh, I have no doubt in my mind that you’re pregnant. From everything you’ve told me, I’m surprised it took you this long to notice,” Max replied. 

“Don’t say that… I don’t want to get my hopes up,” El whispered. 

Max gave her a sympathetic look. “Well, no matter what, I’m here for you. If you’re not, I’ll be your shoulder to cry on. If you are, I’ll be the best damn babysitter you’ve ever seen. And why aren’t you doing this with Mike?”

“Thanks, Max.” El smiled. “I’m not doing this with Mike because I don’t want him to be disappointed, you know, if it’s negative.”

“I think you are though,” Max smirked mischievously. Suddenly, the timer on Max’s phone went off. 

El stood, walking over to the three pregnancy tests that were sitting face down on her sink. She took a deep breath.

“Ready?” Max asked. 

El nodded and flipped the first test over. 

“Holy shit,” Max whispered as she looked over El’s shoulder. 

Two pink lines stared back at her. 

Quickly, El flipped over the other two tests. They were all positive. 

El felt so happy, her eyes filled up with tears. 

“You’re having a baby, El!” Max exclaimed, hugging her best friend. 

El couldn’t believe it. But she couldn’t be any happier. 

Now she just had to figure out how to tell Mike. 

……..

Mike came home, bearing gifts for El with her favorite things. He hoped that she would feel better. 

When he opened the door, instead of finding El lying in bed sick, he found her sitting on the couch, looking nervous, but otherwise healthy. 

“Hey, you feeling better?” he asked. 

“Yeah, much better,” El answered. Was she fidgeting?

“Great, I brought you some stuff. Eggos, chocolate, flowers, juice, and some candy,” Mike said, pulling some of it out and handing it to her. 

“Thank you. You’re the sweetest,” El stood up and kissed him. 

Then Mike noticed that there was a note on the coffee table. 

“Hey, what’s going on? What’s that?” he asked, pointing to the note. 

“I have a surprise for you,” El answered, smiling. 

Mike put the bag of goodies down, and picked up the note to read it.

Hey, honey! I’m so excited to tell you! But first, you have to hunt down every clue until you reach the final prize!

Mike followed each clue, some taking him to random places in the house, others taking him outside. He could feel El’s nervous excitement, and he felt it too. He wasn’t sure what this was about, but whatever it was, it was huge. He could feel it. 

Finally, after nearly a half hour of cute little clues, Mike found a box sitting in their spare bedroom. A little note on top of the box read, “This room isn’t going to be a spare room for much longer. :)”

Mike felt the anticipation as he opened the little box, revealing the secret El had been keeping for the last few hours.

A positive pregnancy test. 

Mike picked up the test, looking at it closely, making sure it was real. 

“You’re pregnant?” he asked, grinning at her. 

El nodded as tears filled her eyes. 

Mike hugged her tightly, kissing her as they both cried happy tears. 

“I love you,” Mike said. 

“I love you, too,” El answered. 

About seven months later, El gave birth to their daughter. A daughter who was loved by her parents more than anyone. She never had to deal with adoption scandals or feeling unwanted. 

And they were all so happy. ….So, very happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always wanted to write this story, years before I had the idea to turn it into a Mileven AU, and I really didn't expect anyone to really care about it. But all of your comments make me feel like I am doing something to entertain you, and I really hope that this ending feels right to you. 
> 
> Before I go, I want to address a few things. 
> 
> A lot of you wanted to see Brenner taken down and Mike resolving things with his parents. I knew that I wanted to include those things in this epilogue. I hope no one's disappointed by how short those sections were. When writing them, I felt like I could have written whole chapters for them, but this story was already so near it's end, and there was just no way that I could keep going with it. That's the only parts of the story that had loose ends I wish I could have tied up a little better, but hey, I'm learning. 
> 
> Now that this story is officially complete (holy!!), I WILL be updating on my Mileven one-shot collections: I Love Her, I Love You Too (Mostly canon) & In every (alternate) dimension (Mileven AUs). So if you enjoy reading my work, please check those out, and send me requests!! I especially need requests for the AU collection!!
> 
> Also, keep an eye out for my first ever Harry Potter fanfic, 19 Years. Hopefully the first chapter will be posted in a week or so!!
> 
> Okay, I'll shut up now. But for one last time, thank you all for reading :)


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